Rubus phoenicolasius: Luscious and Mellow Sweetness of Wineberries

Summary: Rubus phoenicolasius is an Old World shrub that thrives in temperate zones. As a raspberry species, wineberries have a luscious mellow taste.

Rubus phoenicolasius: Wouter Hagens, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Rubus phoenicolasius (ROO-bus fee nee KO las see us) is an Old World raspberry shrub native to temperate East Asia.

Homelands in China especially are concentrated in the provinces of Gansu, Henan, Hubei, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, and Sichuan.

Homelands in Japan encompass the four largest islands of Hokkaido, Honshu, Kyushu, and Shikoku.

Rubus phoenicolasius is also native to Korea.

Rubus phoenicolasius has expanded globally beyond its native range via introductions as an ornamental plant and as breeding stock for bramble cultivars such as blackberries and other raspberries. Since introduction in the United States around 1890, Rubus phoenicolasius has established a wide distribution range centered in eastern Canada and the eastern United States.

Rubus phoenicolasius is known commonly in English as Japanese wineberry, wineberry or wine raspberry.

Despite preferences for sunny sites with moist soil, wineberries tolerate a wide range of habitats. Variations in light and moisture levels as well as elevational and soil differences occur throughout Rubus phoenicolasius’ widely divergent distribution range.

The beguiling taste of wineberries belies the shrub's undesirable talent for opportunistic invasions. Due to versatility in accommodating ecosystems and ecotones, wineberry shrubs easily may alter habitat structures through displacement of native species, especially by way of the shrub's facility in forming dense, shady thickets.

Maryland, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia number among south central and Mid-Atlantic states listing Rubus phoenicolasius as an invasive species. In New England, statutes enacted by the state of Connecticut and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts identify Rubus phoenicolasius as an invasive plant as well as prohibit the shrub's cultivation, distribution, importation, movement, purchase or sale.

Native plant alternatives, which offer different tastes and textures, include blackberries and cultivated raspberries.

As a member of the bramble genus (Rubus), wineberries grow in thickets as deciduous (Latin: deciduus, “that which falls off”), multi-stemmed shrubs.

Arching stems, known as canes, average lengths of 2 to 6 feet (0.6 to 1.8 meters) and maximize at 9 feet (2.7 meters).

Canes bristle with a distinctive indumentum (Latin: indumentum, “garment”; from induere, “to clothe, cover”), or covering, of trichomes (Ancient Greek: τρίχωμα, trikhōma, “hair”) in the form of purplish red glandular hairs, from which the species name derives (Latin: phoeniceus, “deep red” from Ancient Greek: φοινός, phoinós, "blood red" + Latin lasius from Ancient Greek: λάσιος, lasios, “shaggy”).

Trios of blunt-tipped, serrated leaflets flash green uppersides and silvery white, hairy undersides. The heart-shaped leaflets form alternate, rather than paired, arrangements along the stem.

Clusters of small, greenish white, five-petalled flowers open in late spring to early summer. Buds and stems bristle with reddish-purple hairs.

Juicy orange-red fruits ripen in June and July. As aggregate fruits, the distinctive shape of such bramble fruits as blackberries, raspberries and wineberries is formed by small, individual drupes known as drupelets.

Each fruit contains many seeds, each 0.1 to 0.2 inches (2 to 4 millimeters) in length, that facilitate expansion of the shrub’s range as seeds are dispersed through preferential patronage by birds. New World native birds favoring raspberry fruit species include Northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus), Northern cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis), grey catbird (Dumetella carolinensis), ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus), American robin (Turdus migratorius), wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) and American woodcock (Scolopax minor).

Wineberries grow sparsely amid blackberries (Rubus fruticosus) in the sunny meadow fringing the southern extent of my yard and make sparse appearances in the shady willow grove (Salix spp.) along my yard’s western perimeter.

In 2015 fruits seem less abundant but nevertheless taste delicious, with a distinctly luscious and mellow sweetness.

closeup of wineberry flowers and red-haired calyces (leafy coverings) protecting developing berries: Wouter Hagens, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Rubus phoenicolasius: Wouter Hagens, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rubus_phoenicolasius_B.jpg?uselang=fr

closeup of wineberry flowers and red-haired calyces (leafy coverings) protecting developing berries: Wouter Hagens, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rubus_phoenicolasius_C.jpg

For further information:

Barrat, John. "Falling Trees Help Invasive Wineberry Move Into Deciduous Forests in North America." 2011. Smithsonian Science News > Conservation Biology. May 3, 2011.
Available @ http://smithsonianscience.si.edu/2011/05/falling-trees-help-invasive-wineberry-move-into-deciduous-forests-in-north-america/

Innes, Robin J. 2009. “Rubus phoenicolasius.” In: Fire Effects Information System [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer).
Available @ http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/shrub/rubpho/all.html

Meredith, Leda. 2014. Northeast Foraging: 120 Wild and Flavorful Edibles from Beach Plums to Wineberries. Portland OR and London UK: Timber Press, Inc.

"Rubus phoenicolasius." US Forest Service > Fire Effects Information System (FEIS) Database > Plants > Shrub.
Available @ http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/shrub/rubpho/all.html

Swearingen, Jil; Britt Slattery; Kathryn Reshetiloff; Susan Zwicker. 2010. Plant Invaders of Mid-Atlantic Natural Areas. 4th ed. National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Washington, DC.
Available @ http://www.nps.gov/plants/alien/pubs/midatlantic/midatlantic.pdf

USDA, ARS, National Genetic Resources Program. “Taxon: Rubus phoenicolasius Maxim.” Germplasm Resources Information Network – (GRIN) [Online Database]. National Germplasm Resources Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland.
Available @ http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/taxon.pl?32416

“Wine raspberry Rosaceae Rubus phoenicolasius Maxim.” Virginia Tech Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation > Forest Biology and Dendrology Education > Dendrology Factsheets.
Available @ http://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=319