Rubus mesogaeus
Focke
Shade-loving blackberry
(c) Tatsutomo Chin, some rights reserved (CC BY)
(c) Tatsutomo Chin, some rights reserved (CC BY)
(c) Jerome Ko, some rights reserved (CC BY)
What to Eat
Edible parts: Fruit
The purplish-black fruit, around 8mm in diameter, can be eaten raw or cooked and has a good flavour.
Dangerous Lookalikes
This plant can be confused with the following toxic species. Always verify identification carefully before consuming any wild plant.
Red Baneberry: Short herbaceous plant (no thorns), berries on thick red stems, each berry has a single seed, compound sharply-toothed leaves.
Shade-loving blackberry: Thorny woody canes (brambles), aggregate berry made of many drupelets, berries pull easily from receptacle.
Where to Find It
It is a temperate plant. In the Himalayas it grows between 2,200-2,800 m altitude. In Sichuan and Yunnan.
Asia, Bhutan, China, Himalayas, India, Japan, Nepal, Northeastern India, Sikkim, Russia,
How to Identify
A shrub. It loses its leaves during the year. The branches are long and slender. They have a dense covering and a few prickles. The leaves have 3 leaflets and the end leaflet is broadly oval. It is 6-7 cm long by 5-6 cm wide. There are shallow lobes above the middle. The side leaflets are smaller. The flowers are white or pink and 1 cm across. They are in loose clusters. The fruit are blue to black and 1 cm across.
How to Grow
Easily grown in a good well-drained loamy soil in sun or semi-shade. This species is a raspberry with biennial stems, it produces a number of new stems each year from the perennial rootstock, these stems fruit in their second year and then die. Plants in this genus are notably susceptible to honey fungus.
Propagation: Seed requires stratification and is best sown in early autumn in a cold frame. Stored seed needs one month of stratification at around 3°c and should be sown as early in the year as possible. Prick out seedlings once large enough to handle and grow on in a cold frame, then plant out into permanent positions in late spring of the following year. Cuttings of half-ripe wood can be taken in July or August in a frame. Tip layer in July and plant out in autumn. Divide in early spring or just before leaf-fall in autumn.
Medicinal Uses
None known
Other Uses
A purple to dull blue dye can be obtained from the fruit.
Wikipedia
A deciduous shrub reaching 3 meters tall, hardy to UK zone 6. Flowers appear in June with seed ripening from July through September. Hermaphrodite flowers are pollinated by insects. Grows in light sandy, medium loamy, and heavy clay soils, preferring well-drained conditions in mildly acidic, neutral, or mildly alkaline pH. Tolerates semi-shade or full sun and prefers moist soil.
Production
In China plants flower April to May and fruit July to August.
Notes
There are about 250 Rubus species.
Names & Synonyms
Hei mao zi
References (8)
- L. Diels, Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 29:399. 1900
- Hu, Shiu-ying, 2005, Food Plants of China. The Chinese University Press. p 458
- Kang, Y., et al, 2014, Wild food plants used by the Tibetans of Gongba Valley (Zouqu country, Gansu, China) Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 10:20
- Plants for a Future database, The Field, Penpol, Lostwithiel, Cornwall, PL22 0NG, UK. http://www.scs.leeds.ac.uk/pfaf/
- Wang, J., et al, 2020, An ethnobotanical survey of wild edible plants used by the Yi people of Liangshan Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China. Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 16:10 p 9
- Williams, D., 2017, Ainu Ethnobiology. Contributions in Ethnobiology. Society of Ethnobiology. p 140
- www.Efloras.org Annotated checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal.
- www.efloras.org Flora of China Volume 9
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