Northeast Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Rubus idaeus L.
- Family: Rose (Rosaceae)
- Flowering: May-July
- Field Marks: The red raspberry is distinguished by its erect and scarcely arching stems that are bristly between the prickles with non-red bristles. The lower surface of the leaflets is strongly whitened, and the fruits are red at maturity.
- Habitat: Thickets, edge of woods.
- Habit: Biennial shrub from stolons, not rooting at the tip.
- Stems: Upright, scarcely arching, up to 6 feet tall, prickly as well as bristly between the prickles, the bristles not red.
- Leaves: Alternate; those of the sterile stems divided into 3, 5, or 7 leaflets, the leaflets ovate to lanceolate, pointed at the tip, rounded to slightly heart-shaped at the base, sharply toothed, smooth and yellowish green above, white and downy-hairy beneath, leaf stalks usually with bristles; those of the fertile stems divided into 3 leaflets, otherwise similar to those of the sterile stems.
- Flowers: Few in terminal and axillary clusters, up to 1/2 inch across, on glandular-hairy and bristly stalks.
- Sepals: 5, green, attached below to form a cup, bristly, the lobes up to 1/4 inch long, turned downward.
- Petals: 5, white, free from each other, up to 1/4 inch long.
- Stamens: Numerous.
- Pistils: Numerous, each with a superior ovary.
- Fruits: Many drupelets in a spherical cluster up to 1/2 inch in diameter, usually downy-hairy, red.
- Notes: Gleason and Cronquist consider R. strigosus to be the same as this species. The fruits are eaten by animals, including humans.
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