22. Rubus satis L.H. Bailey

Map 2520

Canes to 300 cm long and 40–120 cm tall, 4–7 mm in diameter, forming a dense, mounding tangle. Prickles usually moderate, 0.5–3.0 per cm of cane, 1.5–5.0 mm long. Petioles with nonglandular hairs, armed with downward-curved prickles to 1.5 mm long. Stipules 10–14 mm long, linear to linear-lanceolate. Primocane leaves mostly with 5 leaflets, rarely with 3 leaflets, the margins sharply toothed, the upper surface thinly hairy, the undersurface velvety hairy. Central primocane leaflets 8–14 cm long and 6.0–10.5 cm wide, broadly ovate to ovate, cordate at the base, tapered or long-tapered to a sharply pointed or filiform tip, the leaflet stalk about 1/3 as long as the leaflet blade; middle leaflets elliptic, angled at the base, long-tapered to a sharply pointed tip, stalked; basal leaflets elliptic-obovate, angled at the base, tapered to a sharply pointed tip, sessile. Inflorescences mostly racemose, occasionally appearing flat-topped or flaring toward the apex, (4–)9–21 cm long, with 4–8 flowers and 1–6 leafy bracts, these mostly with 3 leaflets; flower and inflorescence stalks with dense, nonglandular hairs and downward-curved prickles. Sepals 6–7 mm long, 3–4 mm wide, triangular-ovate, tapered to a sharply pointed tip. Petals 14–18 mm long, obovate to broadly obovate. Fruits 10–18 mm long, 9–17 mm wide, globose to short-cylindric. 2n=63. May–June.

Uncommon in the eastern portion of the Ozark Division (northeastern U.S. and adjacent Canada west to Minnesota, Iowa, and Missouri). Mesic upland forests; also roadsides and open, disturbed areas.

The Missouri populations are somewhat disjunct from the main range of the species. The habit of R. satis fits Steyermark’s (1963) erroneous description of R. missouricus, as expressed in his key. Rubus missouricus is not known to tip-root. The growth habit of R. satis also resembles that of R. hancinianus, which is found on dry, upland prairies in central Kansas and which could occur on similar sites in western Missouri (for further discussion on this species’ current exclusion from the flora, see the treatment of sect. Flagellares). Rubus hancinianus differs from R. satis in having smaller, elliptical to obovate central primocane leaflets with rounded bases, as well as flowers that often include more than 5 petals.