Brambles

Rubus subgenus Rubus
(Rubus caesius L. and Rubus fruticosus L. sensu lato)

The mapping/accounts page is here

Species-accounts are those from A Flora of Cumbria (1997), for species which are covered therein. Updating comments may be added in due course.

Forty-one species were covered in A Flora of Cumbria; fifty-seven are currently recorded.
(For completeness the five Cumbrian non-bramble Rubus species are included in the menu.)

Introductory account and key, A Flora of Cumbria (1997)

This account and the accompanying maps are based chiefly on records made by GH from 1980 and contributions from A. Newton (AN, from 1972), E.S. Edees (ESE, 1954-1965) and C.W. Muirhead (1943- 1972). The time span is therefore appreciably longer than the 20 years of the recording scheme, although of the 42 species recorded only Rubus bertramii and R. amplificatus have not been seen during the Survey. A number of recorders have also assisted with the collection of material, notably JA, AAD and MG, and the initial stimulus leading to the recent activity was provided by a collection from south Cumbria by A.J. Sherwood in 1980 and 1981. A significant result of these efforts is a large, modern, comprehensive collection of Cumbrian specimens in LANC. Almost all the Survey records, except those of the commoner species, have been checked by A. Newton. He has also seen most of C.W. Muirhead’s collection (CLE, PLYP).
Lack of space and uncertainties regarding identification and synonyms mean that references in this account to pre-1940 literature records and first vice-county records are largely omitted. Early herbarium records, accepted by ESE and AN, are cited where these supplement recent records. Few of the records in the three county Floras were made by the authors and the only early papers which make any significant contribution to our knowledge of Cumbrian brambles, particularly of the Lake District, are those of Ley & Linton (1906) and Rogers (1907).
Despite the daunting nature of attempting to record brambles on a tetrad basis, probably the first such vice-county survey, the often well defined and varied distributions suggest that there are probably few areas which are so under-recorded as to render the maps misleading, and further that distortions due to over-collecting along roadsides is of little significance. In fact woodlands and especially heaths, the characteristic habitats in southern England, are relatively unimportant in Cumbria where brambles are very much a feature of roadside verges, the edges of stone walls, waste ground and neglected pasture. An exception is the section Rubus, the species of which occur chiefly around lowland mosses and by becksides, particularly in the Lake District.
Brambles are essentially lowland, rarely being found over 250 m, and no single species is characteristic of higher altitudes. In the south-east of the county R. robiae ascends to 305 m in Garsdale and the coastal R. ulmifolius to 270 m, north-east of Sedbergh. In the east, R. dasyphyllus and R. latifolius reach 270 m at Alston and R. adenanthoides 475 m at Nenthead. while the garden R. armeniacus grows at 210 m at the M6 service station north of Tebay. Members of section Corylifolii are noticeably absent from the Lake District, a fact which makes brambling there distinctly pleasurable! Yet these are the only brambles present in the upland limestone area between Asby and Orton.
Although 40 species of brambles may seem quite a rich flora, and it is by northern standards, it is nevertheless paltry compared with that of southern English counties. This relative paucity does however ease the task for beginners and it is hoped that the following key and the brief diagnostic notes will assist them in becoming acquainted with the species. Care is of course necessary. Material from extremes of shade or exposure should be avoided. Well-developed mature leaves and stem from new vegetative shoots and a terminal flowering panicle of a shoot of the previous year are usually both necessary. It is also important to note the colour of newly opened flowers. A particular problem is the frequency with which species intermingle making it only too easy unwittingly to collect vegetative and flowering material of different species.
This account follows the sequence and nomenclature of Edees & Newton (1988), the species being arranged alphabetically within the relevant groups. It must be stressed that within subsection Hiemales the series represent artificial divisions of a spectrum of variation and they are not therefore as precise as one would like. The following names used in earlier Floras differ from those used by Edees & Newton.
R. affinis (= mostly R. nemoralis); R. bellardii (=?); R. carpinifolius (= mostly R. polyanthemus and R. errabundus); R. corylifolius var. conjungens (= R. latifolius) var. sublustris (= R. pruinosus); R. discolor (= R. ulmifolius); R. drejeri (= R. anisacanthos); R. dumetorum var. diversifolius (= R. tuberculatus) R. fissus (= R. scissus); R. fuscus (=?); R. hirtifolius var. danicus (=?); R. hystrix (= R. hylocharis); R. incurvatus (= R. incurvatiformis); R. koeleri subsp. dasyphyllus (= R. dasyphyllus) ; var. infestus (= R. infestus); var. pallidus (= R. dasyphyllus); R. leucostachys (= R. vestitus); R. maasii (= R. polyanthemus); R. macrophyllus (=?); R. mercicus var. bracteatus (= R. cumbrensis); R. opacus (unnamed Langdale plant); R. pyramidalis (= R. incurvatiformis); R. radula var. echinatoides (= R. echinatoides); R. rhamnifolius (= R. errabundus and R. furnarius) var. cordifolius (=?); R. rogersii (= R. fissus); R. rosaceus (= R. hylocharis); R. rudis (= R. echinatoides); R. rusticanus (= R. ulmifolius); R. salteri (= R. errabundus); R. scheutzii (= R. errabundus); R. selmeri (= R. nemoralis); R. suberectus (= R. nessensis); R. umbrosus (= R. polyanthemus); R. villicaulis (= R. nemoralis)

The following species occur in neighbouring vice-counties but as yet have not been found in Cumbria.
R. rubritinctus [NB: found in Kendal area, 2002–4, A.M. Boucher] and R. sprengelii (v.c.60, W. Lancs.), although Baker cites an unsubstantiated record from Storrs, Windermere (3.9).
R. hebridensis and R. lanaticaulis (v.c.71, Isle of Man)
R. leptothyrsos (v.c.72, Dumfriess.)
R. scotticus (v.c.73, Kirkcudbrights.)

Key

Stems refer to first-year vegetative shoots