Rubus enslenii
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''Rubus flagellaris'', the northern dewberry, also known as the common dewberry, is a North American species
perennial A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...
subshrub A subshrub (Latin ''suffrutex'') or dwarf shrub is a short shrub, and is a woody plant. Prostrate shrub is a related term. "Subshrub" is often used interchangeably with "bush".Jackson, Benjamin, Daydon; A Glossary of Botanic Terms with their Der ...
species of dewberry, in the rose family. This dewberry is distributed across much of Canada, Mexico, and the United States. It grows in diverse habitats ranging from drier savannas to temperate
deciduous forests In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, afte ...
.


Description

''Rubus flagellaris'' has low-growing stems that range from long, and flowering stems that can grow up to in height. It can grow as a woody vine or low growing shrub. The young stems are green with a scattered arrangement of hairy prickles. The old stems are brown, woody and have hard prickles in comparison to the young stem. Sometimes the tips of the young stems root into the ground and form vegetative offsets.Flora of North America, ''Rubus flagellaris'' Willdenow, 1809. Northern dewberry, ronce à flagelles
/ref> The species has its most active growth from mid-spring to early summer. The roots of the northern dewberry consist of a woody taproot. The plant has an alternate, compound leaf arrangement, with mostly three, but sometimes five leaflets per leaf. The
margins Margin may refer to: Physical or graphical edges *Margin (typography), the white space that surrounds the content of a page *Continental margin, the zone of the ocean floor that separates the thin oceanic crust from thick continental crust *Leaf ...
of the leaves are serrated and the leaves show a
palmate The following is a list of terms which are used to describe leaf morphology in the description and taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (a single leaf blade or lamina) or compound (with several leaflets). The edge of the leaf may be regular o ...
venation. Each leaflet is ovate, approximately three inches (75 mm) long and one inch (25 mm) wide. The leaflets are green on top, but pale green on the underside. One leaflet of a set is connected by a petiole to the stem while the other leaflets in the set are connected to that terminal leaflet. The plant produces a five-petaled white flower, each flower about one inch (25 mm) in diameter with five petals. The flowers exhibit a terminal inflorescence with one to five flowers per young stem. The flowers are hermaphrodites and have both female and male sex organs. There are five sepals, green in appearance,
lanceolate The following is a list of terms which are used to describe leaf morphology in the description and taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (a single leaf blade or lamina) or compound (with several leaflets). The edge of the leaf may be regular o ...
in shape. The ovaries exhibit a superior position relative to the
sepals A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 The term ''sepalum'' was coined b ...
and petals. Several
stamen The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filame ...
surround a cluster of
carpels Gynoecium (; ) is most commonly used as a collective term for the parts of a flower that produce ovules and ultimately develop into the fruit and seeds. The gynoecium is the innermost whorl of a flower; it consists of (one or more) ''pistils'' ...
. The flowers would then open up at daytime, but close up at nighttime. Once the flowers of the northern dewberry are fertilized,
drupe In botany, a drupe (or stone fruit) is an indehiscent fruit in which an outer fleshy part (exocarp, or skin, and mesocarp, or flesh) surrounds a single shell (the ''pit'', ''stone'', or '' pyrena'') of hardened endocarp with a seed (''kernel'') ...
s soon grow and replace each flower. The drupes are a dark-purplish color and range from ½ inch to one inch in diameter. Once the fruit has fully ripened it has a tart-sweet flavor.


Distribution and habitat

''Rubus flagellaris'' is native to the central and eastern United States (from
Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
,
Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...
,
Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...
, and
Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...
to the
Gulf A gulf is a large inlet from the ocean into the landmass, typically with a narrower opening than a bay, but that is not observable in all geographic areas so named. The term gulf was traditionally used for large highly-indented navigable bodie ...
and
East Coast East Coast may refer to: Entertainment * East Coast hip hop, a subgenre of hip hop * East Coast (ASAP Ferg song), "East Coast" (ASAP Ferg song), 2017 * East Coast (Saves the Day song), "East Coast" (Saves the Day song), 2004 * East Coast FM, a ra ...
s and the Great Lakes region), eastern Canada (
Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
,
Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
,
New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...
, and
Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...
) and northern Mexico (
Coahuila Coahuila (), formally Coahuila de Zaragoza (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Coahuila de Zaragoza ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Coahuila de Zaragoza), is one of the 32 states of Mexico. Coahuila borders the Mexican states of N ...
, Hidalgo,
Nuevo León Nuevo León () is a state in the northeast region of Mexico. The state was named after the New Kingdom of León, an administrative territory from the Viceroyalty of New Spain, itself was named after the historic Spanish Kingdom of León. With a ...
,
San Luis Potosí San Luis Potosí (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of San Luis Potosí ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de San Luis Potosí), is one of the 32 states which compose the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 58 municipalities and i ...
,
Sonora Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora ( en, Free and Sovereign State of Sonora), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is d ...
). ''Rubus flagellaris'' grows on dry soils, bogs, soft soils and wooded soils. This species is actually especially adapted to coarse textured soils (such as sandy soils), fine textured soils (such as loamy soils) and medium textured soils (such as clay-textured soils). ''R. flagellaris'' grows in a wide range of habitats including mesic to dry savannas and sandy savannas, abandoned fields, meadows in wooded areas, and woodland borders. ''Rubus flagellaris'' is adapted to a precipitation zone that ranges from 15 to 40 inches/year, tolerates soils ranging from 5.0 to 7.0 pH, and can survive temperatures as low as . This species has a low tolerance to drought conditions and an intermediate shade tolerance, when compared to other species with similar growth habits in its natural regions. The plant has no salinity tolerance.


Ecology

Many animals such as raccoons, fox squirrels, eastern chipmunks, white-footed mice, and other mammals eat the northern dewberry's fruits, and aid in the dispersal of the shrub. The plant has a high tolerance to hedging from livestock or wildlife browsing. The flowers of ''Rubus flagellaris'', with a fragrant nectar, attract a large number of native bees. They also provide nesting materials and structures for the native bees.‘’Lary Bird Johnson Wildflower Center’’, ''Rubus flagellaris'' Willd, April 30, 2012
/ref> Some of the bee species that interact with the plant and pollinate the flowers are mason bees (of the genus ''Osmia''), leaf-cutting bees, cuckoo bees (of the subfamily
Nomadinae Nomadinae is a subfamily of bees in the family Apidae. They are known commonly as cuckoo bees. This subfamily is entirely kleptoparasitic. They occur worldwide, and use many different types of bees as hosts. As parasites, they lack a pollen-car ...
), and miner bees. Other insects that interact with the northern dewberry to help pollinate it are '' Siphonopora rubi'' (blackberry aphid), ''
Metallus rubi Metallus may refer to: * Metallus (sawfly), insect genus in the family Tenthredinidae * ''Metallus'', unaccepted insect genus in the family Chrysomelidae, synonym of ''Taumacera'' * Metallus, minor character from the animated television series Space ...
'' (blackberry leafminer), '' Agrilus ruficollis'' (red-necked cane borer), and '' Edwardsiana rosae'' (rose leafhopper). The flowers are also a preferred source of nectar for the Karner blue, an endangered species of blue
butterfly Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...
found in the Midwestern U.S. and northeastern North America. When occasional wildfires burn down tall woody trees surrounding ''Rubus flagellaris'', the resulting burning has a positive effect on population growth for the species. Other research has also shown that occasional wildfires are beneficial to the population's growth.


Uses

The ripe berries are edible and can be eaten raw. They are also used to make preserves, pies, and cobblers.


References


External links

* * * {{Taxonbar, from=Q7376207 flagellaris Flora of North America Plants described in 1809