Narrative
The plant that I would like to be 'better known' is the ghost bramble, Rubus biflorus, to my mind the best of the white-stemmed brambles. Its strong-growing, apparently white-washed stems provide the garden with one of its most striking winter features.There are several, Rubus species grown for their bloomy stems of which R. cockburnianus, coreanus, koehneanus, lasiostylus and thibetanus are the most accessible and ornamental. The first is perhaps the best known, a strong growing species up to 1.8m (6ft) or more, its vigorous far-reaching underground stems throwing up thickets of dark, prickle-clad stems covered with a white bloom. It is a fine species, but needs a lot of room and, in my opinion, is less spectacular as a winter feature than R. biflorus. The same can be said of R. coreanus, while R. koehneanus is on a smaller scale, a bushier plant, its stems covered with a bloom more purplish than white.I first came to know R. biflorus at the University Botanic Garden Cambridge where it grew in the old Winter Garden. It shared a border with R. cockburnianus and there was never any doubt in the minds of my fellow students as to which was the most decorative. We sometimes went round the garden at night with flashlights, shining them on the bark and foliage of a whole range of plants among which the eerie white stems of R. biflorus were sensational. Today, this species occupies an important place in the new Winter Garden where its stems contrast effectively with red and yellow-twigged dogwoods and willows.In the wild, R. biflorus is found along the Himalaya from Kashmir in the west to Bhutan as well as in south-east Tibet and west China where it is represented by the variety quinqueflorus differing only in minor characters of inflorescence. xg Ernest Wilson introduced the variety from Above: Rubus bifforus - whiter than white stems stand out in the crowd. Below. Rubus; lasiostylus towering and very prickly Tachienlu (now Kangding) in west Sichuan in 1908 but the type was already in cultivation from a Himalayan source. According to Bean, it had first been introduced in 1818. It is usually found in thickets on hillsides and by streams where it readily copes with the crush of other plants, especially those of a woody nature such as Philadelphus, Deutzia, Buddleia and Lonicera. I first encountered it in just such a situation in east Nepal in 1971 during a seed collecting trip with the late Len Beer. We were working one of the side valleys of the Upper Arun river one day when we lost our way in a bamboo jungle. Our track entered on one side and when we emerged at the other we were way off course having lost some 152m (500ft) in altitude. On looking into the belly of the valley we saw several bamboo huts set in what appeared to be an area of rough grassland. It was getting late and knowing that a village would offer food and rest for the night we headed down-hill. Too late we realised that what had appeared as rough grass was in reality ground formerly cultivated and now covered with scrub of such tangled complexity that we spent the next hour fighting our way through in fading light to where the village beckoned. Being heavily laden and tired we were several times sent sprawling, tripped by trailing vines and at regular intervals we found ourselves blundering into the thorny ghostly embrace of - you've guessed it - Rubus biflorus.-Roy Lancaster