Family |
Rosaceae
Rubus creticus
Tourn. ex L.
Rubus creticus Tourn. ex L.
First published in Fl. Palaest.: 15 (1756).
(Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 2, p. 199, under Rubus sanctus; Pl. LXXII, fig. 4)
Description
Life-form & habit: Spreading shrub with stems reaching several metres. Young canes glaucous and felted; flowering stems reddish, distinctly hairy throughout, with short, robust, recurved prickles.
Leaves: Usually three leaflets, more rarely five, green above and greyish-hairy beneath. Finely toothed, rounded or only slightly pointed at the tip.
Inflorescence & flowers: Inflorescence branches felted and finely prickly. Flower stalks often very short. Flowers pink; anthers slightly hairy.
Fruit: Black and sparsely fleshy.
Flowering and habitat
Phenology: Almost throughout the year.
Habitat & elevation: More or less damp places, ditch margins and hedges.
Distribution
Lebanese distribution: Saida, Hadeth, Beirut, Nahr el Kelb, Tripoli, Mohrab, Qraye, Bikfaya, Dimane, Zahle, Taanail and Wadi Hasbani.
Syrian distribution: Tartous, Slenfe, Ghouta, Douma, Raboue, Damascus, Hassetche, Hamme, Qanaouat and Saouhet el Khodor.
Recorded locations: Kfertay.
Native range: For the accepted name Rubus creticus: Afghanistan, Albania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Egypt, Greece, Iran, Iraq, Kriti, Krym, Lebanon-Syria, Libya, North Caucasus, NW. Balkan Pen., Pakistan, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sinai, Transcaucasus, Turkmenistan, Türkiye, Türkiye-in-Europe and West Himalaya.
Introduced into: Ukraine, under the accepted name Rubus creticus.
⚠️ Taxonomic note:
This entry follows POWO in accepting Rubus creticus Tourn. ex L., with R. sanctus Schreb. as a homotypic synonym. Mouterde treated the plant as R. sanctus (vol. 2, p. 199), distinguished by distinctly pubescent flowering stems, short robust recurved prickles, relatively finely toothed leaflets with rounded or slightly pointed tips, and slightly hairy anthers. His separate R. hedycarpus account (p. 198) describes more sparsely hairy reddish stems, coarser leaf teeth and glabrous anthers. The former R. praecox identification was a misidentification, not a synonym of R. creticus. POWO currently displays R. creticus as accepted while also annotating its publication with “nom. rej.”; the accepted-name treatment is followed here with that nomenclatural qualification retained.