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Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Wildflower Wednesday, July 2013

Welcome to my Wildflower Wednesday post, hosted by Gail at Clay and Limestone, who is featuring Cup Plant this month.  One of the many assertive natives in my yard is Thimbleberry, Rubus parviflorus, which is found from Alaska to California and east to the Dakotas and New Mexico-

It is useful in that it has an edible berry, but the bush can get 5-6' tall, and doesn't have a very big crop of berries per plant.  It would not be a very high-yielding plant to grow as a food crop.   It spreads rapidly by underground suckers, rather like raspberries, and after taking over a large area can get really disgusting by flopping all over.  I made the mistake of trying to eliminate Thimbleberries from an area and plant raspberries there instead, but after a few years the Thimbleberries managed to overrun the poor raspberries, and the area was enclosed in a deer fence, which made it very hard to deal with the tangle of plants.  So while the fruit is tasty, it is something I tolerate or rather can't quite control, so is not very suitable to a city lot. The fruits come loose from the receptacle in the shape of a cup, hence the name Thimbleberry.

I would rank it far behind other native berries in my yard, like Salal and Oregon Holly Grape, in nutritional content and the attractiveness and desirability as a landscaping plant, though the fruits are pleasant raw, whereas Salal and Oregon Holly Grape would be better cooked and perhaps mixed with other fruit to moderate the strong taste, similar to Black Currant or Aronia, which fruits also have a high antioxidant value.  It is very persistent and hard to eliminate once it has roots and runners in the ground.   On the other hand, it will grow in difficult situations like on dry banks.  Indian tribes used the leaves dried and powdered or made into a decoction or poultice for various health problems.  Native American Plants by Daniel Moerman is a good reference for how Indians used various native plants for medicine and food.



Too much of a good thing.   -Hannah

11 comments:

  1. I have heard of Thimbleberries, but had no idea what they looked like. Now I do - Thanks!
    Happy Wildflower Wednesday!
    Lea
    Lea's Menagerie

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    1. I particularly like the natives that fruit, but Thimbleberries can turn into a nightmare!

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  2. This is a new one for me! Way cool! I suspect it's wildlife value is through the roof. It's quite lovely, too bad it's thuggish in you're fruit patch. Btw, your fruiting plants sound very interesting. Happy WW! gail

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    1. Thanks, Gail. I do like it on my front bank but I am fighting it in lots of other areas. I love the Mahonia (Oregon Holly Grape, undergoing a name change), and Salal. Salal can spread too, but not on the scale of Thimbleberry.

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  3. At first I thought it might be an interesting native to include in my garden but by sharing all the info you have changed my mind in a hurry. Even though not too many plants can spread by underground runners here I don't plan on letting it try.

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  4. I would highly recommend Oregon Holly Grape, it comes in several heights and species- Mahonia, is very drought tolerant and has very high oxidant level fruit. There is one native to Texas, Mahonia swaseyi.

    I also like other barberries, a few have fruit large enough to eat, but most of the really edible ones don't grow up here, and are from Asia. I did get Berberis darwinii, but the fruits are very small. Deer don't eat them because they are thorny.

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  5. Apparently it grows in my state (Wisconsin), too, but mainly in the north. It's a beautiful shrub with beautiful fruit. Do the berries taste like Raspberries?

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  6. They taste a little similar to raspberries, and the seeds are much smaller so don't stick in your teeth or need to be strained out. The yields are very low though, and they are very delicate and perishable. I just wish they weren't so rampantly obnoxious and difficult to remove/kill. They are coming up in my shrubbery, my raspberry patch now non-existent, and my Salal patch, etc.

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  7. Hannah these sound like my blackberries which are native and take over...but they are yummy. I had heard of these but had never seen them... Love the Native book resource. I collect many of these books for writing posts about my native plants.

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  8. I have the native blackberries Rubus ursinus, they trail and have small berries that are very flavorful, but they are extremely invasive and hard to get rid of, they have come up yet again in my Salal and Oregon Holly Grape stands and it's very hard to get out all the roots next to the other plants. A little of this wouldn't be too bad but on a 2 acre scale it is a continuous battle.

    I like to study herbal medicine, so that book is interesting. The Native Americans knew a lot about how to use the plants.

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  9. Hi Hannah, It's always a learning experience growing native plants. I have taken to planting spreaders like the butter and eggs in tubs. Well, at least the berry on your plant is pretty, even if it doesn't taste so great.

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