Rubus playfairianus Hemsl. ex Focke

Shrubs climbing or scrambling, deciduous or semievergreen. Branchlets dark brown to blackish brown, initially tomentose, glabrescent, with sparse, curved minute prickles. Leaves palmately compound, 3–5-foliolate; petiole 2–4 cm, tomentose-villous, with sparse, curved small prickles, terminal leaflet sometimes very shortly petiolulate, lateral leaflets subsessile; stipules caducous, free, oblong, 8–11 mm, tomentose-villous, palmatipartite, lobes lanceolate or linear; blade of leaflets elliptic-lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, 5–12 × 1–3 cm, terminal leaflet much larger than lateral leaflets, abaxially densely gray or yellowish gray appressed tomentose, adaxially glabrous, base cuneate, margin unevenly sharply serrate, lateral leaflets sometimes 2 lobed basally, apex acuminate. Inflorescences terminal or axillary, racemes, 6–9 cm, to 15 cm in fruit; rachis and pedicels gray or yellowish gray tomentose-villous, with few small prickles; bracts oblong, 6–9 mm, tomentose-villous, palmatipartite; lobes linear to lanceolate. Pedicel 1–2 cm. Flowers 1–1.5 cm in diam. Calyx abaxially densely yellowish gray to gray tomentose-villous; sepals ovate-lanceolate to triangular-lanceolate, 6–10 × 4–6 mm, margin entire, apex acuminate to caudate. Petals ovate, 6–8 × 4–6 mm, apex acute. Stamens many, slightly shorter than petals, soft hairy when young, glabrate in age; filaments not inflated. Pistils ca. 60, slightly longer than or nearly as long as stamens, villous. Aggregate fruit red when immature, black at maturity, subglobose, villous, with many drupelets; pyrenes prominently rugose. Fl. Apr–May, fr. Jun–Jul.

Guizhou, Hubei, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan.

Slopes, roadsides, stream sides, thickets; 300--2400 m.

Rubus cochinchinensis Trattinnick var. stenophyllus Franchet; R. playfairianus var. stenophyllus (Franchet) Cardot.