Salmonberry
Rubus spectabilis
Description:Erect, largely unarmed shrub, branching, grows to 4m tall, often forming very dense thickets. Twigs are hairless, bark is golden-brown and shredding. Fruits are yellow or reddish, mushy, soft, and very tasty. Flowers are pink or fuchsia, large and conspicuous.
Ecology: Grows in moist to wet places in low to subalpine elevations. Often abundant on streambanks and ditch sides, common in forests and disturbed areas.
Notes: The tasty young salmonberry shoots were peeled and eaten in the spring by native people, raw, or steamed in cooking pits. Berries were also picked and eaten in the summer or dried for winter use.
Trailing Blackberry
Rubus ursinus
Description: This prostrate, trailing shrub is armed with slender prickles and grows up to 5m or more in length, its floral canes are erect to 50cm tall. Produces white, sometimes pink, flowers, and delicious 1cm fruits in summer.
Ecology: Grows abundantly in disturbed sites, thickets, and dry, open forest at low to middle elevations, seen as a "weed" in some urban and suburban areas.
Notes: This one was growing over some mossy rocks on the side of a logging road in Sechelt, BC. This is our native blackberry; the large Himilayan and Evergreen Blackberries that are so common in our region are introduced weeds, please see Noxious Weeds for more information on these species and how to help prevent their spread.
Thimbleberry
Rubus parviflorus
Description: Erect, unarmed shrub, 0.5-3m tall, usually forming dense thickets from rhizomes. Leaves are maple-leaf shaped, deciduous, alternate, up to 25cm across and with fine fuzz on each side. White flowers are large, to 4cm across, with crinkled petals, several (3-11) in long stemmed terminal clusters. Shallow, dome shaped hairy, red juicy berries. Edible, and quite tasty.
Ecology: Grows in open sites and in open forests at low elevations to subalpine areas in southern BC. Often found growing along side of logging roads and residential roads in rural areas.
Notes: This one was found at the edge of a forest and a clearcut, in West Sechelt at low elevation, May 2001.
Five-Leaved Bramble
Rubus pedatus
Description:An unarmed creeping perennial from runners. It has 1-3 alternate deciduous leaves divided into 5 coarsely toothed leaflets or lobes. It produces small white flowers with widely spread petals, followed by small clusters of bright red tasty drupelets (small raspberries).
Ecology: Found in moist mossy forests, bog forests and streambanks from low to subalpine elevations.
Notes: The berries were not often eaten by first nations because of their small size and difficulty in collecting them. This one was found beneath an old picnic table at Carlson Lake at middle elevation, June 30, 2001.
Blackcap AKA
Black Raspberry
Rubus leucodermis
Description: An erect or arching shrub to 2m tall and covered with curved, flattened prickles. Alternate and deciduous leaves are crinkled and egg-shaped with 3 (or 5) sharply toothed leaflets with whitish undersides. It produces small white or pinkish flowers in terminal clusters or in leaf axils, followed by medium sized hairy red berries that ripen to a blackish purple, very tasty.
Ecology: Common on disturbed sites such as clearcuts, as well as forests and thickets at low to middle elevation in southwestern BC.
Notes: The berries were a food source for first nations people and were eaten fresh or dried for later use. This picture was taken in a clearcut in Sechelt.
