Rubus acuminatus

Smith

Phurse kanda, Rato ainselu

RosaceaeFruit

iNaturalist · cc-by
(c) Anastasia Titovets, some rights reserved (CC BY)

wikimedia · cc-by-sa
Wikimedia Commons - peganum from Small Dole, England

What to Eat

Edible parts: Fruit

The ripe fruit are eaten raw.

Dangerous Lookalikes

This plant can be confused with the following toxic species. Always verify identification carefully before consuming any wild plant.

DEADLY

Red Baneberry

Actaea rubra

SAFE

Phurse kanda

Rubus acuminatus

Red Baneberry: Short herbaceous plant (no thorns), berries on thick red stems, each berry has a single seed, compound sharply-toothed leaves.

Phurse kanda: Thorny woody canes (brambles), aggregate berry made of many drupelets, berries pull easily from receptacle.

Where to Find It

A subtropical plant. They grow throughout Nepal from 1000-2300 m altitude. They grow in moist, shady places in secondary forest. It grows in bamboo forests between 1,000-3,000 m above sea level. In Yunnan.

Asia, Bhutan, China, Himalayas, India, Indochina, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Northeastern India, SE Asia, Sikkim, Sumatra, Vietnam,

Countries: United Arab Emirates, Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bahrain, Brunei, Bhutan, China, Georgia, Indonesia, Israel, India, Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Cambodia, North Korea, South Korea, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Laos, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Mongolia, Maldives, Malaysia, Nepal, Oman, Philippines, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Syria, Thailand, Tajikistan, Timor-Leste, Turkmenistan, Turkey, Taiwan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Yemen

How to Identify

A shrub. It climbs without tendrils. The leaves have stalks. They are oval to sword shaped. They taper to the tip. They have teeth around the edge and the base is rounded. The flowers are white. They occur in the axils of leaves as well as at the ends of branches. They are in loose, open flower clusters. The fruit are round. They are bright red.

How to Grow

Plants are grown from root offshoots or seeds.

Notes

There are about 700 Rubus species.

Names & Synonyms

Darme, Hisalu, Lahare ainselu, Rani, Rato aiselu, Rato ainselu, Sanu aeiselu

Rubus acaenocalyx Hara

References (11)

Altschul, S.V.R., 1973, Drugs and Foods from Little-known Plants. Notes in Harvard University Herbaria. Harvard Univ. Press. Massachusetts. no. 1429
Aryal, K. P. et al, 2009, Uncultivated Plants and Livehood Support - A case study from the Chepang people of Nepal. Ethnobotany Research and Applications. 7:409-422
Bajracharya, D., 1980, Nutritive Values of Nepalese Edible Wild Fruits. Z. Lebensm. Unters. Forsch. 171: 363-366
Dangol, D. R. et al, 2017, Wild Edible Plants in Nepal. Proceedings of 2nd National Workshop on CUAOGR, 2017.
Flora of China @ efloras.org Volume 9
Gautam, R. S., et al, 2020, Wild Edible Fruits of Nepal. Int. J. Appl. Sci. Biotechnol. Vol 8(3): 289-304
Ghimeray, A. K., Lamsal, K., et al, 2010, Wild edible angiospermic plants of the Illam Hills (Eastern Nepal) and their mode of use by local community. Korean J. Pl. Taxon. 40(1)
Manandhar, N.P., 2002, Plants and People of Nepal. Timber Press. Portland, Oregon. p 403
Mukhia, P.K., et al, 2013, Wild plants as Non Wood Forest Products used by the rural community of Dagana, a southern foothill district of Bhutan, SAARC Journal, 27 pages
A. Rees, Cycl. 30: Rubus no. 43. 1815
Upreti, K., et al, 2010, Diversity and Distribution of Wild Edible Fruit Plants of Uttarakhand. Bioversity Potentials of the Himalaya. p 185