Rubus subtibetanus Hand.-Mazz.

Shrubs climbing, 1–2 m tall. Old branches brown or reddish brown, pubescent, with dense unequal needle-like prickles and basally broadened short prickles; branchlets dark green, more with dense, needle-like prickles. Leaves imparipinnate, 3–5-foliolate; petiole 2.5–4.5 cm, petiolule of terminal leaflet 1.5–2.5 cm, lateral leaflets subsessile, petiolules and rachis pubescent, with dense, needle-like prickles; stipules linear-lanceolate, 7–10 mm, pubescent; terminal leaflet broadly ovate to ovate-lanceolate, base truncate to subcordate, margin often pinnately lobed, apex acuminate, slightly longer than lateral leaflets, lateral leaflets oblique-elliptic or oblique-ovate, 2–5 × 1.5–4 cm, abaxially densely gray to yellowish gray tomentose, adaxially pubescent, margin irregularly or incised rough serrate, base rounded or broadly cuneate, apex acute to shortly acuminate. Inflorescences terminal or axillary, corymbose, 2–4 cm; rachis and pedicels pubescent, with dense, needle-like prickles; bracts linear, 5–7 mm, pubescent. Pedicel 6–10 mm. Flowers 6–8 mm in diam. Calyx abaxially densely pubescent; sepals erect at anthesis, reflexed in fruit, narrowly ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 5–7 × 2–3 mm, apex acute to acuminate. Petals white, with red or purplish red spots, suborbicular or obovate, 5–6 mm in diam., slightly longer than sepals, base puberulous. Stamens many, somewhat shorter than petals; filaments linear, glabrous. Pistils slightly longer than stamens; ovary pubescent; styles glabrous. Aggregate fruit blue-black at maturity, subglobose, 6–8 mm in diam., puberulous; pyrenes smooth or rugulose. Fl. May–Jun, fr. Jun–Jul.

Gansu, Shaanxi, Sichuan.

Slopes, thickets, valleys; below 2300 m.