Photo: Rasbak — CC BY-SA 3.0 · source
Survives zone 5 through 8
Harvest calendar
Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.
Instantly identifiable by its densely red-glandular-hairy canes and by the hairy calyx that fully encloses the ripening fruit like a husk until just before harvest. Fruit is smaller and seedier than most cultivated raspberries but sweet-tart and pleasant; the species is documented as invasive in parts of the eastern US, where it is legally restricted in some states.
- Hardiness
- Zone 5–8
- Habit
- Shrub
- Edible part
- Fruit
- Ripens
- Summer–autumn
- Mature size
- Arching shrub 1–3 m, the canes covered in red glandular bristles
- Light
- Full sun to partial (woodland edge) — best fruit in sun
- Soil pH
- 6.0–7.0 (near-neutral)
- Environment
- Temperate
- Native range
- East Asia — northern China, Japan, and Korea; introduced to Europe and North America as an ornamental and as raspberry-breeding stock, and now naturalized — in places invasively — in both regions, especially the Appalachian Mountains of the eastern US.
- Status
- Both wild and cultivated
- Years to fruit
- 2–4 yrs
- Growth speed
- Medium-to-vigorous — first-year primocanes can reach 2-3 m in a season before fruiting on second-year floricanes, which then die back.
- Spacing
- 135 cm (53 in) apart — about 1.8 m² (20 sq ft) per plant
- Leaf shape
- Compound leaf; first-year canes bear larger leaves of 3-5 leaflets, second-year canes bear smaller leaves of 3 leaflets that are densely white-woolly on the underside.
- Root system
- Perennial rootstock producing biennial canes; spreads by root suckers and by cane tips that root readily on contact with soil.
- Fruit description
- Small, round, orange-to-red aggregate fruit about 1 cm across (up to roughly 2 cm by some accounts), sweet and juicy with a tart-sweet, raspberry-like flavor, though smaller and containing more seeds than typical cultivated raspberries.
- Propagation
- By tip-layering — canes root readily wherever their tips touch the ground — as well as by division of suckers, by seed (stratified and sown in autumn), or by stem cuttings.
- 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
Fertilizing. Grows in a wide range of soils, including chalk, clay, loam and sand, but does best in moist, fertile, well-drained ground. Keep nitrogen moderate — as with other vigorous brambles, heavy feeding pushes cane growth at the expense of fruiting.
How it spreads. Spreads by suckering roots and by cane tips that root on contact with the ground. In the eastern US it is documented as invasive, forming dense thickets that displace native vegetation; it is legally listed as a noxious weed in Connecticut and New York, where its possession, sale, and transport are prohibited by law, and it is banned in several other New England states, though as of recent surveys it was not yet listed as invasive or noxious in North Carolina.
Growing tips. Instantly recognizable by its canes, petioles and calyces, which are densely covered in fine red glandular hairs that exude a sticky fluid — a striking but non-carnivorous trait (the hairs trap small insects but do not digest them). The developing fruit is fully enclosed by this hairy calyx, like a husk, until just before it ripens, which helps keep out maggots and other insects. Canes are biennial: first-year primocanes are unbranched with 3-5 leaflets, second-year floricanes branch, flower, fruit, and then die. Tolerates full sun to partial or light shade, though fruiting is best in sun. Generally pest-free but can get grey mould and, rarely, honey fungus, plus the raspberry cane borer common to the genus.
Grow journal
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