Rubus queenslandicus, commonly known as bramble-of-the-cape, rose-leaf bramble, or native raspberry, is a species of bramble that is endemic to a small part of northeastern Queensland, Australia, where it is found on the margins of highland forest.
Description This species is an erect shrub growing up to about tall. The stems, petioles and rachises are glabrous, i.e. without hairs, but have small stout thorns about long. The compound leaves are glabrous and usually have five or seven leaflets, although those close to inflorescences may have three or one. The leaflet blades are narrowly ovate, the base obtuse and the tip acute or acuminate. The leaflet margins are bi- or triserrate, the teeth up to 3 mm long, and each of the eight or nine lateral veins terminate at a major tooth.
The inflorescences are terminal or borne in the leaf axils, flowers carried on pedicels up to 3.5 cm long. There are five pale sepals measuring up to by 4 mm with a long acumen, narrowly triangular, persistent. The five petals are white, measure about 11 mm long by wide, and are deciduous. The flowers have 100–200 stamens measuring about 3.5 mm long, and 400–600 carpels.
Flowering has been observed from May to November, and fruit between June and February. The fruit is an ovoid or somewhat cylindrical aggregate fruit is about 13 mm across and up to long; it is bright red at maturity.
Taxonomy Prior to 1997, collections of this plant were identified as either R. rosifolius, R. fraxinifolius or R. muelleri/R. probus.
This species was first formally described by the Queensland botanist Anthony Bean based on a specimen collected by another Queensland botanist, Paul Irwin Forster, in the Mount Lewis National Park. Bean's paper, titled "A revision of Rubus subg. Idaeobatus (Focke) Focke (Rosaceae) in Australia", was published in 1997 in the journal Austrobaileya.
Etymology The genus name Rubus is from the Latin word rubus meaning "blackberry" or "bramble". The species epithet queenslandicus refers to the Australian state to which this species is endemic.
Distribution and habitat This species is restricted to highland areas of northeastern Queensland, from the Windsor Tablelands (adjacent to the Daintree National Park), south to Mount Fox (a little north of Townsville). However, most collections of the plant have been on the Atherton Tableland. It usually grows in disturbed areas of rainforest or on the forest's margins, at altitudes from about up to .
Ecology The fruit is eaten by numerous species of birds.
Conservation This species is listed by the Queensland Department of Environment and Science as least concern. , it has not been assessed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
References
External links
View a map of herbarium collections of this species at the Australasian Virtual Herbarium View observations of this species on iNaturalist View images of this species on Flickriver