Tasmania has nine introduced species in the Rubus
fruticosus complex (blackberries).
These are very common woody weeds with prickly scrambling
stems. They are very closely related to each other. In fact
they are all variants of a single group of plants, but they
produce viable seed without sexual reproduction and are
separate species because they cannot interbreed.
One of these species, R.
laciniatus, is treated separately in this key
because of its distinctive deeply lobed leaves. The others (R.
anglocandicans, R. echinatus, R. erythrops, R.
leucostachys, R. philadelphicus, R. polyanthemus, R.
rubritinctus and R. vestitus) are not treated
separately here.
These species can be confused with native raspberry (R. parvifolius),
but the leaflets are larger and are usually arranged
palmately (i.e. arising from a single point, like fingers
on a hand).
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University of Tasmania
