Former and modern taxonomic treatment of the apomicticRubus complex

Spontaneous hybrids between native and exotic Rubus in the Western United States produce offspring both by apomixis and by sexual recombination

“…The most widespread group of invasive Rubus, the R. fruticosus aggregate of species, also reproduces primarily by asexual means. This species complex is native to Europe, and consists of a few sexual diploid species and many tetraploid clones that reproduce by facultative pseudogamous apomixis and occasionally hybridize with each other (Weber, 1996). Evans and Weber (2003) identified only two invasive clones of R. fruticosus agg.…”

“…Both of these exotic types are tetraploid and reproduce primarily by pseudogamous apomixis, with the exception of one R. fruticosus agg. microspecies, R. ulmifolius, which produces seeds sexually (Nybom and Schaal, 1990;Thompson, 1995;Weber, 1996). Rubus is also grown as a fruit crop in this geographic region, with cultivars derived from R. ursinus, R. fruticosus agg.…”

Rubus pseudofagifolius (subg. Lampobatus, Rosaceae), a replacement name for a Mexican bramble species and its lectotypification

“…The genus occurs in all continents except Antarctica (Lu & Boufford 2003, Wang et al 2013. Rubus is a taxonomically notoriously complex group; its species circumscription is complicated by hybridization, polyploidy, agamospermy, and lack of a universal species concept (Weber 1996).…”

Concealed diversity : taxonomical, phytogeographical and phytosociological notes on brambles (Rubus L. subgen. Rubus) in north-west Europe

“…All modern authors agree that not every single occurring form is worth describing, but instead only stabilised biotypes should be described as species. To assure this, only lineages with a distribution area > 50 km are described as species, and biotypes with smaller distribution areas are ignored as taxonomically unimportant 'local biotypes' (Weber , 1996Holub 1997; see e.g. Bijlsma & Haveman 2007;Kurtto et al 2010;Király et al 2013b, a).…”

“…Historically there have been various attempts to classify the numerous apomicts (Weber 1996(Weber , 1999aKurtto et al 2010, p. [1908][1909][1910][1911][1912][1913], and 5.) as species with different values with respect to their fertility and distribution (Focke 1877;Gustafsson 1943).…”