Survives zone 7 through 9
Harvest calendar
Ripens: Leaves late spring–summer; fruit summer
Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.
A LEAF crop first — leaves are intensely sweet (rubusoside, a diterpene glycoside) and used dried as a sugar-free tea in Guangxi. Fruit is an ordinary orange-red raspberry, edible but minor.
- Hardiness
- Zone 7–9
- Habit
- Shrub
- Edible part
- Leaf, Fruit
- Ripens
- Leaves late spring–summer; fruit summer
- Mature size
- Arching shrub 1–3 m; containerable
- Light
- Full sun to partial
- Soil pH
- 5.5–7.0
- Environment
- Subtropical montane
- Native range
- Southern China — chiefly the hills and slopes of Guangxi province, in broad-leaved and coniferous forest at roughly 500–1,000 m elevation.
- Status
- Both wild and cultivated
- Years to fruit
- 2–3 yrs
- Growth speed
- Vigorous — upright shoots reach a mature height of roughly 2–2.5 m (up to 8 ft) in a season.
- Spacing
- 150 cm (59 in) apart — about 2.3 m² (24 sq ft) per plant
- Leaf shape
- Palmately divided leaves in five to seven parts, on shoots armed with thorns; flowers 3–5 cm across.
- Root system
- A perennial crown and shallow spreading root system in the top 30–40 cm, carrying biennial canes: each cane grows one year, fruits the next, then dies. New shoots come from buds on both the crown and the roots, which is why a bramble returns from root fragments left after digging and why it is so hard to remove once settled.
- Fruit description
- An ordinary orange-red raspberry-type aggregate fruit, edible but considered a minor byproduct — the plant is grown for its leaves, not its fruit.
- Propagation
- By seed, cold-stratified and sown in a cold frame in early autumn; shares the vigorous, easily rooted growth habit of R. chingii.
- Pollination
- Self-fertile
The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.
Growing guide
Fertilizing. Prefers well-drained, loamy soil enriched with organic matter, in full sun to partial shade, with slightly acidic to neutral pH; consistent moisture is needed, but waterlogging risks root rot.
Growing tips. Grown primarily as a leaf crop, not a fruit crop — the leaves contain rubusoside, a diterpene glycoside reported to be roughly 100–200 times sweeter than sugar, and are dried for use as a calorie-free sweet tea (tiancha) in Guangxi. Fresh shoots are heavily thorned but tolerate hard, repeated pruning well since only the leaves are harvested; fully winter-hardy where planted.
Grow journal
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