Rubus spp.
ROSACEAE, Rose Family
Many of us greatly enjoy eating species and forms of the genus Rubus, better known as raspberries and blackberries. There are probably 250 species of this genus occurring around the Northern Hemisphere, and all are potentially edible. They are mostly trailing shrubs with thorny emergences along the stem and leaf axes, and often times these plants are collectively referred to as brambles. Raspberries are generally propagated via suckers. In nature the canes become layered and root easily, but plants also spread by creeping perennial roots.
Sharp projections do not stop us from harvesting the delicious, sweet fruits, which are a type of aggregate fruit. Each one of the juicy spheres comprising a raspberry is a small drupe that developed from one of the pistils in the flower, so this is in reality an aggregate of drupelets (quite a mouthful)! These drupelets contain high concentrations of Vitamin C and are an excellent source of folic acid, niacin, and riboflavin. Some cultures consider the raspberry as a love-inducing food. More commonly raspberry is used during pregnancy in tea or other vehicles for combating the nausea and vomiting that accompany morning sickness, with some scientific justification.
The origins of the species and the many horticultural forms are very complex, and involved hybridization and polyploidy, all too confusing to present here. Even the pure form of raspberry, Rubus idaeus, normally red, can have white or yellow forms. Other fruits from this genus include black raspberry, boysenberry, dewberry, wineberry (Japanese), loganberry, tayberry, and so forth. Realize only that none of these is truly a berry in a botanical sense--they are drupes.
Raspberries are grown in backyards and gardens throughout most of the United States, because fruits can be produced just about anywhere, but commercial production is concentrated where the climate is not too cold in the winter but summers are relatively cool. Oregon, northern California, Washington, and southern British Columbia (especially near Abbotsford) are where most red raspberries (R. idaeus) are produced for the myriad of soft drinks, preserves, yogurt flavoring, and frozen desserts, as well as becoming the fresh fruits for summer markets.