Description: This is a moorland relative of the common bramble or blackberry, but is extremely rare in Ireland. Unlike the blackberry, the fruit is orange in colour, but for some reason the Irish plants are stunted and usually fail to produce either flowers or fruit. It is also a much smaller plant than the blackberry, growing low against the ground and with undivided leaves.

The plant is confined in Ireland to one mountain top in the Sperrins, clearly merely a last remnant of a much bigger population that would have occurred in Ireland in the past (it is much commoner in similar situations in Great Britain). Probably its decline has been caused by climate change and increased competition from other plants during the period since the end of the ice-age, but the present population size seems stable.

All names: Rubus chamaemorus L.

Distribution Map from NBN: Rubus chamaemorus at National Biodiversity Network mapping facility, data for UK.

iNaturalist: Rubus chamaemorus at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.