Photo: pratap baniya — CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Survives zone 8 through 9
Harvest calendar
Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.
Golden-yellow raspberry — genuinely sweet and good, among the better Asian species. Care: Winter protection — mulch, fleece, or a warm wall.
Spread warning. A state-listed noxious weed in Hawaii, where it was introduced in 1960 for its fruit and escaped cultivation within a year, forming impenetrable thickets that displace native vegetation including the endemic Hawaiian raspberry, Rubus hawaiiensis; it is ranked among the IUCN's 100 worst invasive alien species, with naturalized populations also reported in parts of the continental US and the UK.
- Hardiness
- Zone 8–9
- Habit
- Shrub
- Edible part
- Fruit
- Ripens
- Early summer
- Mature size
- Robust bristly shrub 2–4 m — vigorous, hard to contain
- Light
- Full sun to partial
- Soil pH
- 5.5–7.0
- Environment
- Subtropical montane
- Native range
- The Indian subcontinent and the Himalayan region eastward through Nepal, Bhutan, southern China and Southeast Asia, typically at 300–2,600 m elevation on roadsides, hillsides, valleys and forest margins.
- Status
- Both wild and cultivated
- Years to fruit
- 2–3 yrs
- Growth speed
- Fast and difficult to contain — spreads rapidly by root suckers and stem-layering; listed among the world's 100 worst invasive species in areas where it has escaped cultivation.
- Spacing
- 200 cm (79 in) apart — about 4 m² (43 sq ft) per plant
- Leaf shape
- Compound, trifoliate leaves with rounded to blunt-tipped, serrated leaflets 5–10 cm long, downy and paler on the underside; stems are densely bristly.
- Root system
- A persistent perennial rootstock that throws up vigorous root suckers and resprouts readily from underground shoots even after fire or cutting, giving the plant strong regenerative capacity.
- Fruit description
- A golden-yellow, roughly 1 cm aggregate of juicy, crowded drupelets (each containing a single seed), depressed-hemispherical in shape; sweet and juicy, among the better-flavored Asian Rubus fruits.
- Propagation
- Deliberate propagation is usually by seed or cuttings, but the species also self-propagates readily from root suckers, from cane tips that root on contact with soil, and from bird- and mammal-dispersed seed — the same ease of spread that has made it invasive where introduced.
- Pollination
- Self-fertile
The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.
Growing guide
How it spreads. Spreads aggressively by root suckers and by stem-layering (canes rooting where they touch the ground), and regenerates readily from underground shoots after fire or cutting — the traits that make it difficult to eradicate where it has naturalized.
Growing tips. A vigorous, densely bristly shrub that forms impenetrable thickets if not kept in check; reported susceptible to honey fungus (Armillaria), which has been explored as a biological control agent in Hawaii. Given its documented invasiveness elsewhere, site it where suckers and rooting cane tips can be contained, and remove root fragments completely if it is ever taken out.
Grow journal
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