Relatives

Rubus caesius L. - European dewberry.

Taxonomic position.

Family Rosaceae Juss. genus Rubus L.

Synonyms.

Rubus psilophyllus Nevski

Morphology and biology.

Semishrub with climbing or decumbent shoots, often taking root, 0.5-2 m long. Shoots are covered with glaucousness and numerous straight or curved thorns mixed with few stalky glandules, naked or glabrescent. Leaves are odd-pinnate, usually trifoliolate, seldom quinquefoliolate. Petioles are 4-6 cm long, bristling with aciculae. Leaflets are whole or laciniate, ovate-rhombic, varying on both sides from naked to sparsely pubescent, green from above, lighter from below, coarsely incised-dentate along the edge. Flowers are assembled on the ends of branches into loose corymbose panicles. Pedicels are pubescent with simple or glandular hairs. Sepals are pubescent from the outside, with few glandules. Corollas are white, 2-3 cm in diameter. Fruits are bluish-black polydrupes, with glaucousness.
Entomophilous, ornito- and zoochore. Propagated by seed, root cuttings or softwood cuttings. Blossoms in the second half of June or early July, bears fruit in August. 2n=28.

Distribution.

All over Europe, except the Far North; Crimea; Caucasus; south of Western Siberia (western part of the Altai-Sayan highlands and adjacent areas to the west); Kazakhstan; Middle Asia; Asia Minor.

Ecology.

Mesophyte. Grows along riverbanks, among the undergrowth of flood-plain forests, on forest edges or cuttings, in brushwood thickets, less frequently on meadowlands. Ascends mountains, but not too high (in Altai up to 1100 m above sea level).

Utilization and economic value.

Food, ornamental, melliferous. Attracts great interest, first of all, as a valuable berry plant. Fruits of European dewberry are consumed fresh and used to prepare jams and confectionary.

References:

Brezhnev, D.D., Korovina, O.N. 1981. Wild relatives of cultivated plants in the flora of the USSR. Leningrad: Kolos, pp.207-208. (in Russian).
Koropachinskiy, I.Yu., Vstovskaya, T.N. 2002. Woody plants of the Asian part of Russia. Novosibirsk: Publishing House of SB RAS, Branch "Geo", pp.366-367 (in Russian).
Sokolov, S.I., Svjaseva, O.A., Kubli, V.A. 1980. Areas of distribution of trees and shrubs in the USSR. vol.2. Leningrad: Nauka, p.78 (in Russian).
Vascular plants of the Soviet Far East. 1996. Kharkevich.s S.S. (ed.), vol. 8. Leningrad: Nauka, p. 234 (in Russian).

© I.G.Chukhina.

copyright for picture belongs to Konechnaja G.