Rubus pluribracteatus L. T. Lu & Boufford

Shrubs to 3 m tall. Branchlets brownish to purplish brown, terete, stout, yellow tomentose and with sparse, curved small prickles. Leaves simple; petiole 3–6 cm, densely yellow tomentose, with sparse, minute prickles; stipules broadly elliptic to broadly obovate, 1–1.8 cm, apex pectinately lobed; lobes undivided, lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, tomentose-villous; blade suborbicular, 7–16 cm in diam., 5-veined, veins prominent abaxially, abaxially densely yellowish gray or yellow tomentose, villous along veins, adaxially soft hairy, densely bullate, base cordate, margin 7–9-lobed, terminal lobe obtuse or subtruncate, inconspicuously 3-lobed, unevenly coarsely serrate, apex obtuse or acute. Inflorescences terminal and axillary, terminal ones narrow cymose panicles or subracemes, 7–14 cm, axillary ones racemes or flowers few in clusters in leaf axils; rachis and pedicels densely yellow or yellowish white sericeous-villous; bracts similar to stipules in shape, 1–1.5 cm, palmately laciniate; lobes lanceolate. Pedicel 1–1.5 cm, rarely longer. Flowers 1.5–2.5 cm in diam. Calyx abaxially densely yellow or yellowish white sericeous-villous; tube broadly pelviform; sepals erect in fruit, broadly ovate, 0.9–1.5(–2.4) cm × 4–7 mm, margin sometimes slightly tomentose, apex acuminate; outer sepals larger, palmately to pinnately divided, rarely undivided, inner sepals narrower, not or occasionally lobed. Petals white, obovate or spatulate, 0.8–1.4 cm × 5–8 mm, glabrous, base clawed. Stamens many; filaments broad, complanate; anthers with few long hairs. Pistils numerous, longer than stamens; ovary glabrous. Aggregate fruit red, globose, to 2 cm in diam.; pyrenes prominently rugose. Fl. Mar–Jun, fr. Aug–Sep.

Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Yunnan [Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam].

Slopes, river valleys, roadsides, forests, forest margins; 300--2700 m.

Replaced synonym: Rubus multibracteatus H. Léveillé & Vaniot, Bull. Soc. Etud. Sci. Angers 11: 99. 1902, not Boulay & Pierret ex Rouy & Camus (1900).