Images: ©Jouko Lehmuskallio
Cloudberry
Rubus chamaemorus
- Family: Rose Family – Rosaceae
- Height: 10–25 cm (4–10 in.)
- Flower: Regular, 2–3 cm (0.8–1.2 in.) across. Five white sepals are present which are free and notched at the tip. The male and female flowers are on separate individuals. The flowers are solitary.
- Leaves: Alternate with fairly long stalks. The blade is wavy, often wrinkly and roundish to kidney shaped, shallowly 3–7-lobed. The leaf margins are toothed and the leaves are hairy, especially underneath, and they have yellowish glands.
- Fruit: An aggregate of drupes which is red at first and yellow when ripe.
- Habitats: Spruce swamps, pine bogs, mossy open bogs, mossy strings in aapa mires, boggy forests, drained peatlands, wet depressions on rock outcrops.
- Flowering time: June.
The cloudberry belongs to the genus Rubus (brambles, blackberries) which is a large and diverse, cosmopolitan group. It is taxonomically difficult as many species hybridise. The brambles are herbs or suckering shrubs. The aerial shoots may also be creeping or scrambling, and are often prickly. The leaves are usually compound or lobed. The fruit is an aggregate of drupes. Some of the species produce economically important berries and many of them are cultivated. The cloudberry is one of the most important wild berries in Finland.
The cloudberry yield varies greatly between years. Often a frost night in spring during the bloom prevents the development of the berries. Sometimes no berries are produced despite vigorous flowering because the species is dioecious. This can mean that all the cloudberry individuals in an area have formed through vegetative reproduction and are therefore a clone of only one sex. When ripe, the cloudberries are rich in vitamin C. They are readily preserved due to the sugars and acids they contain.
