Rubus pubescens
Encyclopedia
Rubus pubescens is a herbaceous
perennial
native to the northern United States
and Canada
. Rubus chloocladus (syn.
Rubus pubescens Weihe) is native to Europe
.
(Johnson et al. 1999).
Leaves are compound with three more or less sessile (stalk-less), diamond-shaped leaflets. The middle leaflet is the largest, and most symmetrical, while the two side leaflets are wider below the midrib; all leaflets have toothed margins (Johnson et al. 1999). With the exception of the trailing stems, all parts of the plant are shed in the fall.
Flowers have five white petals, often curled backwards, and the yellowish anthers give the center an appearance of yellow and black speckles. Flowering typically occurs between late May and late June, depending on the locality, but occasional flowers can be seen from early May through August. Flowers usually produce a single shiny red fruit, in the form of a drupe (several tiny berries attached to a central receptacle), in early July. Like a blackberry, the fruit does not easily separate from its receptacle.
Although the shallow-rooting tendency of dewberry makes it susceptible to damage by fire, it spreads quickly over a site by rhizomes, and can become an important component of ground cover after low and moderate-intensity disturbance (Wang and Kemball 2005), thereby reducing soil water loss from evaporation.
Like other members of the genus, Dewberry is an insect pollinated plant. Without insect pollination, the number of fruits produced and the number of druplets per fruit can decrease by 85-95% (Whitney et al. 1984). Because of its early flowering time, dewberry may be an important food source for insect pollinators in late spring, before the more nutritious and abundant flowering plants (e.g., red raspberry or blueberry crops) become available.
The fruits are sweet and juicy right off the plant, but can also be used in jams, jellies, and most recipes involving red raspberries. If separating the berry from the receptacle frustrates your efforts to obtain a tasty treat, just eat the berry and receptacle together - both are quite edible.
Herbaceous plant
A herbaceous plant is a plant that has leaves and stems that die down at the end of the growing season to the soil level. They have no persistent woody stem above ground...
perennial
Perennial plant
A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. The term is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter lived annuals and biennials. The term is sometimes misused by commercial gardeners or horticulturalists to describe only herbaceous perennials...
native to the northern United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. Rubus chloocladus (syn.
Synonym (taxonomy)
In scientific nomenclature, a synonym is a scientific name that is or was used for a taxon of organisms that also goes by a different scientific name. For example, Linnaeus was the first to give a scientific name to the Norway spruce, which he called Pinus abies...
Rubus pubescens Weihe) is native to Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
.
Description
Dewberry is a known as a sub-shrub or herbaceous perennial (Kartesz 2011). The trailing stems (stolons) are 10 to 30 cm (3.9 to 11.8 in) in length, and the upright petioles are usually less than 20 cm tall. They differ from larger shrubby species in the genus in that the only upright part is herbaceous and only lightly speckled with fine hairs (hence the specific epithet "pubescens"), as opposed to the woody stems and larger prickles that cover many other species of RubusRubus
Rubus is a large genus of flowering plants in the rose family, Rosaceae, subfamily Rosoideae. Raspberries, blackberries, and dewberries are common, widely distributed members of the genus. Most of these plants have woody stems with prickles like roses; spines, bristles, and gland-tipped hairs are...
(Johnson et al. 1999).
Leaves are compound with three more or less sessile (stalk-less), diamond-shaped leaflets. The middle leaflet is the largest, and most symmetrical, while the two side leaflets are wider below the midrib; all leaflets have toothed margins (Johnson et al. 1999). With the exception of the trailing stems, all parts of the plant are shed in the fall.
Flowers have five white petals, often curled backwards, and the yellowish anthers give the center an appearance of yellow and black speckles. Flowering typically occurs between late May and late June, depending on the locality, but occasional flowers can be seen from early May through August. Flowers usually produce a single shiny red fruit, in the form of a drupe (several tiny berries attached to a central receptacle), in early July. Like a blackberry, the fruit does not easily separate from its receptacle.
Habitat
Dewberry is found in moist conifer or mixedwood forests, with canopies dominated by spruce and fir with lesser components of aspen, maple, birch, or pine. It roots primarily in the organic layers of the soil. It is often found growing with bunchberry (Cornus canadensis), wild lily of the valley (Maianthemum canadensis), and goldthread (Coptis trifolia).Distribution
Dewberry is most common in boreal and temperate forested areas of Canada and the United States of America, but ranges from montane to coastal elevations, and from the arctic to the great plains, giving it a wide distribution in both north-south and east-west directions (Kartesz 2011).Ecological Importance
Dewberry is eaten by a variety of mammals and birds, including black and grizzly bears, many small rodents, and game birds such as grouse.Although the shallow-rooting tendency of dewberry makes it susceptible to damage by fire, it spreads quickly over a site by rhizomes, and can become an important component of ground cover after low and moderate-intensity disturbance (Wang and Kemball 2005), thereby reducing soil water loss from evaporation.
Like other members of the genus, Dewberry is an insect pollinated plant. Without insect pollination, the number of fruits produced and the number of druplets per fruit can decrease by 85-95% (Whitney et al. 1984). Because of its early flowering time, dewberry may be an important food source for insect pollinators in late spring, before the more nutritious and abundant flowering plants (e.g., red raspberry or blueberry crops) become available.
Human Importance
Although dewberries were (and still are) often too scattered and small to be an important traditional food for aboriginal groups in North America, those groups living in southern and eastern parts of the continent used the roots medicinally, to relieve various stomach ailments or to treat women with pregnancy or menstruation-related problems (Johnson et al. 1999).The fruits are sweet and juicy right off the plant, but can also be used in jams, jellies, and most recipes involving red raspberries. If separating the berry from the receptacle frustrates your efforts to obtain a tasty treat, just eat the berry and receptacle together - both are quite edible.
Conservation
Dewberry is listed as threatened in the state of Illinois, where it is more commonly known as dwarf raspberry (Illinois Endangered Species protection Board 2011). This status is probably due to a combination of human habitat destruction and a natural rarity at the southern limit of this species' range.External links
- Northern Ontario Plant Database
- Germplasm Resources Information Network
- USDA PLANTS Profile
- Shrubs of Wisconsin
- Native Plant Identification Network
- Plant Web — Department of Environmental Quality — Michigan
- Flowering Plants in Voyageur County
- Photos of Wetland Plants from Michigan and the Upper Midwest
- CalPhotos
- PlantFiles