yellow-fruited creeping raspberry

Photo: Sten — CC BY-SA 3.0 · source

Survives zone 6 through 8

Harvest calendar

Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.

A low, spreading Chinese raspberry whose name (xanthocarpus, 'yellow-fruited') describes its orange-yellow berries, which have a good raspberry flavor and can be eaten fresh, made into jam or jelly, or fermented into wine; it has also escaped cultivation in parts of Central Europe, naturalizing in Poland and the former Czechoslovakia.

Spread warning. Naturalized outside cultivation in parts of Central Europe, including Poland and the former Czechoslovakia.

Hardiness

Zone 6–8

Habit

Groundcover

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

Summer–autumn

Mature size

Low herbaceous perennial 20–40 cm, spreading by rhizome

Light

Full sun to partial

Soil pH

6.0–7.0 (near-neutral)

Environment

Montane

Native range

Central and southern China (Anhui, Gansu, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan).

Status

Wild

Years to fruit

2–4 yrs

Growth speed

Moderate

Spacing

90 cm (35 in) apart — about 1.2 per m² (1.1 per 10 sq ft)

Leaf shape

Alternate, with three narrow toothed leaflets on low herbaceous stems — a much smaller plant than the canes elsewhere in this genus.

Root system

Rhizomatous, spreading underground via creeping rhizomes rather than forming a simple upright woody rootstock — a growth form distinguishing it from most other Rubus species.

Fruit description

Orange-yellow, compressed-globose aggregate berries about 10–15mm across, with a good raspberry-like flavor.

Propagation

Seed (stratified, sown in early autumn); half-ripe cuttings in midsummer; tip layering in July; division in early spring or before autumn leaf-fall.

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.