This species is widely distributed across north-western Europe. It is a member of the Subsection Rubus with the characteristic upright stems. Plants can be locally abundant on heaths, commons, mire and moorland fringes, frequently forming dense stands developing from underground sucker grow. Also be found in open birch and oak woodlands and along heathy woodland rides but declining in abundance as woodlands develop towards maturity and the canopy closes.

The images shown here were taken at Freshfield Heath, near Formby, Lancashire. To see splendid plants of R. bertramii I recommend a visit to Knutsford Heath in Cheshire.

It can often be difficult to distinguish R. bertramii from the very similar R. plicatus especially if plants grow in suboptimum conditions. From the images provided on this website we can see that the stem prickles of R. bertramii are clearly more strongly curved than those of R. plicatus, whilst the leaves of R. bertramii can consist of up to 7 leaflets. The stamens of R. bertramii are longer than the styles, a proportion of the young carpels are hairy and the receptacle is glabrous.