Kanienʼkéha: ahtahkwakáyu, ahtahkwaká:yon
Anishinaabemowin: miskomin (-ak, plural)
French: Ronce odorante

It’s raspberry season! Did you know we have twelve different types of Rubus spp. (raspberry, blackberry, dewberry, thimbleberry) native to Ontario! They range in colour from light yellow to black and occur all the way to the arctic-alpine region. If you have ever grown raspberries in your garden, you may already know that there are two “types” and depending on which you have will determine what care they require. Most commercial raspberries are “Summer Bearing” type, meaning that they produce one crop of berries in the summer. The other type is “Fall Bearing” producing a crop in both fall and the following summer!

Purple Flowering Raspberry (Rubus Odoratus) – While the canes of raspberries only last for two summers, the root itself is perennial, lasting many years. In spring, buds on the roots create stolen that shoot up to form what we know as the primocane (first cane). Primocanes are first year canes, they are green and pliable. “Fall Bearing” raspberries (Rubus spp.), flower the first fall on primocanes and can be pruned back to the ground the next spring to bear another crop the following summer on the floricane (flower cane). “Summer Bearing” raspberries (Rubus spp.) only flower in their second year on the floricane; they only require pruning to the ground after they have produced fruit. This graphic from the University of Minnesota Extension shows the different stages of growth in “Summer Bearing” raspberries.

Raspberry Growth: University of Minnesota

Family – Rosaceae – Rosa (Rose) – Roses have been admired for a very long time, since at least 500 BC, and have been a part of our common language for just as long. All members of this family have 5 petals, 5 sepals, multiple stamens and stipules at the base of each leaf. The flowers of this family are appealing to our eyes and come in many different colours and combinations of inflorescences (arrangement of flowers on a plant). Members of this family have hypanthiums (stamens, sepals, and petals that are fused into a cup shape) which give them the rose shape we know so well.

Genus – Rubus – Ruber (red) Rubus (Bramble) – Rubus is another family that likes to hybridize at will, yet it rarely influences cultivation as we grow from stolons rather than seeds. Most of the plants in this genus are woody shrubs that have prickles, and an aggregate fruit made up of druplets. Each of those tiny little berry-like pieces on a raspberry is a druplet with an ovary and will produce its own seed. In Ontario we can make some inferences about which species it may be based on prickles on the stem: raspberries, blackberries and dewberries all present prickles while dwarf raspberries and thimbleberries do not. Nectar, pollen, hollow canes, and prickles make Rubus sp. the ultimate plant for pollinators, supporting over 101 different caterpillars as both food and shelter.

Species – Odoratus- odor (fragrant) – This raspberry is named for its smell, which like its flower, is more similar to its showier rose cousins. Purple Flowering Raspberry (Rubus odoratus) has simple palmate leaves resembling a maple leaf. It lacks prickles, but newer branches will be covered in fine hairs. This raspberry should be used as an ornamental to attract songbirds as they adore the small, seedy, mostly flavourless fruits. This is a woody “Fall Bearing” Raspberry and should be pruned in late fall to early spring to increase flowering. As with any raspberry, Rubus odoratus is suckering and will require space to grow.

Purple flowering raspberry in bloom in London

Photo Credits and References
1. Photo Credit : University of Minnesota: https://extension.umn.edu/fruit/growing-raspberries-home-garden
3. Greenbelt Indigenous Survey: https://gibsurvey.ca/species/raspberries-blackberries