Rubus leucodermis

Taxobox
name = "Rubus leucodermis"
regnum = Plantae
divisio = Magnoliophyta
classis = Magnoliopsida
ordo = Rosales
familia = Rosaceae
genus = "Rubus"
subgenus = "Idaeobatus"
species = "R. leucodermis"
binomial = "Rubus leucodermis"
binomial_authority = Dougl. ex Torr. & A.Gray.

"Rubus leucodermis" (Blackcap Raspberry, [http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/get_JM_treatment.pl?Rubus+leucodermis Jepson Flora Project: "Rubus leucodermis"] ] Black Raspberry, [http://linnet.geog.ubc.ca/Atlas/Atlas.aspx?sciname=Rubus+leucodermis Plants of British Columbia: "Rubus leucodermis"] ] or Whitebark Raspberry, [http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=RULE NCRS: USDA Plants Profile: "Rubus leucodermis"] ] and native: Blue Raspberry) is a species of "Rubus" native to western North America, from British Columbia, Canada south to California, New Mexico and Mexico. [http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/taxon.pl?32371 Germplasm Resources Information Network: "Rubus leucodermis"] ] It is closely related to the eastern Black Raspberry "Rubus occidentalis".

It is a deciduous shrub growing to 0.5-2 m tall, with thorny shoots. While the crown is perennial, the canes are biennial, growing vegetatively one year, flowering and fruiting the second and then dying. Like with other dark raspberries, the tips of the 1st year canes (primocanes) often grow downward to the soil in the fall, and take root and form tip layers which become new plants. The leaves are pinnate, with five leaflets on leaves strong-growing stems in their first year, and three leaflets on leaves on flowering branchlets with white, seldom light purple flowers. The fruit is 1–1.2 cm diameter, reddish-purple, dark blue to nearly black when ripe, and has high contents of anthocyanins and ellagic acid.

It is a variable species, as well as forming natural hybrids with other species in subgenus "Idaeobatus". Three varieties are recognized:
*"Rubus leucodermis" var. "leucodermis"
*"Rubus leucodermis" var. "bernadinus" Jepson
*"Rubus leucodermis" var. "trinitatis" Berger

References