3353.000 Rubus L. - Brambles

Shrubs. Stems prickly, scrambling or trailing. Stipules free or adnate to base of petiole. Leaves 3-foliolate or imparipinnate with 2-3(-4) pairs of leaflets; upper leaves sometimes simple; leaflets serrate. Flowers in many-flowered racemose or paniculate inflorescences at the ends of the branches. Flowers bisexual, usually 5-merous, actinomorphic. Calyx segments 5. Petals 5, sometimes 0. Stamens numerous. Carpels many. Fruit a head of many 1-seeded drupelets.

Worldwide: 250 species, cosmopolitan, but mainly northern temperate

Zimbabwe: 4 taxa.