Rubus moluccanus var. trilobus
A.R.BeanTall scrambling shrub or climber; stems to c. 7 m long, hairy, bearing numerous curved prickles to c. 3 mm long. Leaves simple, ovate to suborbicular, mostly 2–15 cm long, 3–10 cm wide, usually shallowly and broadly 3(rarely 5)-lobed, base cordate, margins toothed or sometimes shallowly lobed, upper surface green, the veins flat to slightly impressed, the surface between the veins not or only indistinctly bullately raised, sparsely appressed-hairy, lower surface brown-tomentose; stipules shallowly lobed. Flowers in irregular panicles. Sepals villous, acuminate, never reflexed; petals broadly elliptic, pinkish or white. Fruiting head more or less globose, c. 12 mm diam.; mature fruit red, falling from receptacle when ripe. Flowers mainly spring and summer.
EGL, EGU, HSF, HFE. Also Qld, NSW. In Victoria confined to lowland wet sclerophyll forest and warm-temperate rainforest margins in East Gippsland.
Hybrids with R. parvifolius have been collected near Goongerah. These plants have some leaves irregularly 3-foliolate and others deeply 3-lobed. Such plants are treated as Rubus ×novus.
Jeanes, J.A.; Jobson, P.C. (1996). Rosaceae. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 3, Dicotyledons Winteraceae to Myrtaceae, pp. 556–585. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
Spinning