Relatives
Rubus chamaemorus L. - Cloudberry, Bakeapple.
Taxonomic position.
Family Rosaceae Juss. genus Rubus L.Morphology and biology.
Perennial plant with long, creeping, branched rhizome. Supraterraneous shoots 5-30 cm tall, erect, shortly pilose with few glandular hairs, covered in lower part with scale-like brownish leaves, in upper part with 2-3 normally developed petiolate leaves. Leaf blades orbicular-reniform, with 5(7) shallow rounded lobes, irregularly finely dentate. Flowers solitary, terminal, unisexual. Staminate flowers larger than pistillate ones, up to 3 cm diameter; pistillate up to 2.5 cm diameter, containing stamens with underdeveloped anthers. Sepals ovate, obtuse, covered with hairs and short stipitate glands. Petals white, obovate. Fruits aggregate drupes, initially red, amber-yellow when ripen, semiopaque, later turning brown.Entomophilous, ornitho- and zoochore. Flowers in June - July, fruits in late July - August. 2n=56.
Distribution.
Northern Europe (Scandinavia), northern European Russia (the southern limit of distribution stretches over northern Moscow Region), Urals, Siberia, Mongolia (north), Japan (north), North America.Ecology.
Psychrophyte. Occurs in Arctic and forest zones, in forest mountain zone in sphagnum bogs, in moist, mossy and moss-lichen tundras.Use and economic value.
Food, medicine. The fruits have excellent taste and are eaten fresh (also steeped, frozen) and cooked (jam). Good melliferous plant.References:
Gubanov IA., Kiseleva KV., Novikov VS., Tikhomirov VN. 2003. Illustrated Manual of the Middle Russia Plants. V.2. Moscow: KMK. P.404. (In Russian).Polozhij AV., Malyshev LI., ed. 1988. Flora of Siberia. V.8. Rosaceae. P.30. (In Russian).
Tzvelev NN. 2000. Manual of the vascular plants of Northwest Russia (Leningrad, Pskov and Novgorod Regions). St.Petersburg: State Chemical-Pharmaceutical Academy Press. P.429. (In Russian).