Photo: Rudolph89 — CC BY-SA 3.0 · source
Survives zone 8 through 9
Harvest calendar
Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.
Famous among brambles for its near-total loss of leaves in the open — the yellow-prickled green stems take over photosynthesis while the leaves shrink to sparse, deeply toothed remnants (or vanish entirely). This New Zealand endemic bears small red-to-orange fruit that is edible but insipid; it's grown for its curiosity value and wiry, scrambling form rather than for eating.
- Hardiness
- Zone 8–9
- Habit
- Shrub
- Edible part
- Fruit
- Ripens
- Summer–autumn
- Mature size
- Thorny scrambling shrub climbing to about 5 m through whatever it can reach
- Light
- Full sun to partial
- Soil pH
- 6.0–7.0 (near-neutral)
- Environment
- Temperate
- Native range
- Endemic to New Zealand — North and South Islands, mainly in eastern districts, from Ahipara southward; naturally uncommon in Northland and Otago and regionally critical in Auckland, though 'Not Threatened' nationally.
- Status
- Ornamental
- Years to fruit
- 2–4 yrs
- Growth speed
- Slow to moderate; RHS lists 5–10 years to reach its modest ultimate size.
- Spacing
- 75 cm (30 in) apart — about 1.8 per m² (1.7 per 10 sq ft)
- Leaf shape
- Leaves usually much-reduced or entirely absent on open-grown plants, with photosynthesis carried out by the green stems instead; where present, leaves are compound with 3–5 lanceolate, deeply toothed leaflets.
- 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
- Small red to red-orange aggregate berries, edible but described as insipid (bland).
- Propagation
- Easily grown from layered stems, semi-hardwood cuttings, or seed.
- 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
How it spreads. Scrambles and climbs over rocks and neighboring shrubs via hooked yellow prickles, rather than spreading by suckers, rhizomes, or tip-rooting.
Growing tips. Hardy and drought-tolerant (RHS H4, roughly -10 to -5°C); prefers open, free-draining soil in full sun to partial shade — but is unlikely to flower well in full sun, so light shade improves flowering; needs only minimal pruning, removing wayward or crossing stems while dormant in late winter/early spring; suits rockeries or growing through other shrubs for support.
Grow journal
Sign in to keep a dated log of when you planted, bloomed and harvested this plant.