Sumatran raspberry

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.

A warm-climate Asian raspberry with pleasant-tasting, orange-red fruit — but native to equatorial highlands from Sumatra to southern China and Japan, it has limited cold tolerance and needs sustained warmth to perform well outside subtropical or mild maritime climates.

Hardiness

Zone 8–9

Habit

Shrub

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

Summer–autumn

Mature size

Erect shrub 1–2.5 m

Light

Partial to full sun

Soil pH

6.0–7.0 (near-neutral)

Environment

Montane

Native range

East and Southeast Asia — southern China, Japan, northeast India, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia (including Sumatra, its namesake), typically in forest clearings, roadsides, tea plantations and forest margins at 500–2,000m elevation.

Status

Wild

Years to fruit

2–4 yrs

Growth speed

Fast — canes make 1–3 m in a season

Spacing

200 cm (79 in) apart — about 4 m² (43 sq ft) per plant

Leaf shape

Alternate, pinnate with five to seven lance-shaped leaflets, the whole plant conspicuously set with red glandular bristles.

Root system

Erect to scrambling (semi-scandent) canes arising in clusters from a woody rootstock.

Fruit description

Ellipsoid, orange-red to red berries about 18mm long by 11mm wide, an aggregate of drupelets with a pleasant flavor, eaten raw when ripe.

Propagation

Grown from seed; specific cutting or layering protocols are not well documented for this species.

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.