Former and modern taxonomic treatment of the apomictic Rubus complex

The development of the taxonomy of the European bramble flora is discussed. Previous taxonomic concepts were mainly (1) description of each different bramble bush as a species of its own, (2) treatment of bramble taxa with hybrid formulas, (3) arranging of bramble taxa as infraspecific taxa within an artificial system, (4) creation of special taxonomic units like ''agamospecies''. In modem taxonomy only well stabilized apomicts with a regional or wider distribution are taken into consideration and treated as species. Merely locally distributed brambles or the countless individual biotypes (spontaneous hybrids and their derivatives) are no longer a subject of special taxonomic treatment. The research into bramble flora has made considerable progress during the last 25 years, and the species of large parts of Europe are now well known including their distribution which is often illustrated by detailed maps.