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1 Leaves (all) simple; stems unarmed. | |
2 Leaves palmately lobed, orbicular, coarsely toothed, 9-30 cm long; plant a shrub, 10-20 dm tall; petals deep pink; [genus Rubacer or subgenus Anoplobatus – mapleleaf raspberries] | |
2 Leaves unlobed, elliptic to ovate-orbiculate, finely toothed, 1.5-3 cm long; plant an herb, < 1 dm tall; petals white; [genus Dalibarda or subgenus Dalibarda] | |
1 Leaves 3-9-foliolate (reduced simple leaves may also be present in the inflorescence); stems generally armed with prickles (sparsely so in a few species). | |
3 Upright stems herbaceous, annual, not differentiated into primocanes and floricanes, unarmed or with a few weak bristles; stipules oblanceolate; [e. WV northward]; [subgenus Cylactis – dwarf raspberries] | |
4 Fruit separating from the receptacle, the receptacle remaining on the pedicel; stems either strongly white-glaucous (R. occidentalis), or densely beset with slender-based prickles and bristles (R. idaeus), or densely hairy with 3-5 mm long glandular hairs (R. phoenicolasius), or if not as above then the leaves pinnately 5-9-foliolate (R. illecebrosus) or with a rhombic terminal leaflet about as wide as long and densely white-tomentose below (R. parvifolius); [raspberries]. | |
4 Fruit retaining the receptacle; stems or leaves not as described above, except if beset with slender-based prickles and bristles then also < 1 m tall; [blackberries and dewberries]. | |
5 Canes very coarse, scrambling, often 2-5 m long, heavily armed; inflorescence cymose-paniculate; branches and pedicels of the floricanes armed with strong, flattened prickles (recurved cat’s-claw, or nearly straight in R. bifrons); [exotic, generally in disturbed habitats]; [Eurasian blackberries]. | |
5 Canes delicate to coarse, arching or trailing, 0-4 m long, unarmed to strongly armed; inflorescence racemiform; branches and pedicels of the floricanes generally unarmed; [native, though often in disturbed habitats]. | |
6 Primocanes prostrate, creeping, or low-arching, rooting at the tip or also at the nodes; [dewberries]. | |
6 Primocanes erect, ascending, or high-arching, not rooting; [native blackberries]. |
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3 Lianas climbing by tendrils. | |
7 Leaves > 3 dm long and wide; tree monopodial, with a single, unbranched stem (rarely with a few branches). | |
10 Leaves 3-5 (-7) lobed; [collectively widespread]. | |
11 Leaves 3 (-5)-lobed, to 35 cm wide and long, each lobe coarsely toothed or sublobed, the teeth or sublobes (at most 1-2 per cm of margin) attenuate-acuminate; multiple fruit spherical and merely rough on the surface, consisting of multiple achenes with tawny bristles; buds infrapetiolar (completely hidden in the swollen petiole base) | |
13 Leaves pubescent (slightly or strongly). | |
15 Leaves 10-30 cm long and wide; fruit a berry; inflorescence of solitary to a few flowers, or a raceme | |
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3 Plants unarmed. | |
2 Inflorescence an axillary or terminal raceme, fascicle, cyme, or umbel, of < 20 flowers; leaves herbaceous, deciduous. | |
10 Leaves large, > 10 cm wide, palmately veined, palmately lobed; fruit an aggregate of drupelets; [tribe Rubeae] | |
10 Leaves smaller, < 8 cm wide, pinnately veined, either not lobed or basally pinnately lobed; fruit a drupe, a capsule, an aggregate of follicles, or an aggregate of achenes. | |
11 Leaves singly serrate or entire (rarely, as in Prunus americana, irregularly and slightly doubly serrate), not lobed basally. | |
14 Corolla yellow; stems arching, green; fruit an aggregate of drupe-like achenes (dry and indehiscent); [tribe Kerrieae] | |
14 Corolla white to pink or rose; stems not both arching and green; fruit various (see below). | |
15 Inflorescence a dense, umbel-like corymb; leaf apices rounded to acute; fruit an aggregate of 5 follicles; [tribe Neillieae] | |
16 Fruit an aggregate of 2-4 drupe-like achenes; [rare native of calcareous habitats in sc. TN, nw. GA, n. AL, and disjunct westward in AR and MO]; [tribe Kerrieae] |