Rubus apetalusPoir.

WFO wfo-0001016849 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 3 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 3 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Rubus apetalus, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. a Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2020-02-24 / obs. 65755966
Rubus apetalus, photographed by Jimmy Whatmore
fig. b Jimmy Whatmore, CC0 1.0 / obs. 102251317
Rubus apetalus, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. c Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 65755999
Rubus apetalus, photographed by Jimmy Whatmore
fig. d Jimmy Whatmore, CC0 1.0 / obs. 102251316
Rubus apetalus, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. e Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 65756047
Rubus apetalus, photographed by Jimmy Whatmore
fig. f Jimmy Whatmore, CC0 1.0 / obs. 102251226
Rubus apetalus, photographed by Jimmy Whatmore
fig. g Jimmy Whatmore, CC0 1.0 / obs. 102251321
Rubus apetalus, photographed by Scott Loarie
fig. h Scott Loarie, CC0 1.0 / obs. 2391836

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 17 botanical countries

Regions where Rubus apetalus is native: Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, DR Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Northern Provinces, Réunion, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe AngolaBotswanaBurundiCameroonDR CongoEritreaEthiopiaKenyaMalawiMozambiqueNigeriaNorthern ProvincesRwandaTanzaniaZambiaZimbabwe Réunion
Native distribution of Rubus apetalus, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Angola ANG AFRICA
Botswana BOT
Burundi BUR
Cameroon CMN
DR Congo ZAI
Eritrea ERI
Ethiopia ETH
Kenya KEN
Malawi MLW
Mozambique MOZ
Nigeria NGA
Northern Provinces TVL
Réunion REU
Rwanda RWA
Tanzania TAN
Zambia ZAM
Zimbabwe ZIM

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Also published as 23 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Dyctisperma apetalus (Poir.) Raf. ex B.D.Jacks.
  • Dyctisperma apetalus Raf.
  • Rubus adolfi-friedericii Engl.
  • Rubus adolfi-friedericii var. rubristylus Gust.
  • Rubus apetalus f. pyramidalis Gust.
  • Rubus apetalus var. grossoserratus Hauman
  • Rubus arabicus var. schimperi Focke ex Gust.
  • Rubus assaortinus Chiov.
  • Rubus assaortinus var. erythraeus (Fiori) Gust.
  • Rubus borbonicus Pers.
  • Rubus borbonicus f. pyramidalis Gust.
  • Rubus chiovendae Gust.
  • Rubus exsuccus Steud. ex A.Rich.
  • Rubus exsuccus var. erythraeus Fiori
  • Rubus gortanii Chiov.
  • Rubus interjungens Gust.
  • Rubus petalabigens Gust.
  • Rubus petitianus A.Rich.
  • Rubus pinnatiformis Gust.
  • Rubus quartinianus A.Rich.
  • Rubus quartinianus var. hararensis Engl. ex Gust.
  • Rubus quartinianus var. pappianus Gust.
  • Rubus tomentosus Bory

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.