Raspberry: Encyclopedia - Raspberry

Raspberry

The Raspberry or Red Raspberry, (Rubus idaeus) is a plant that produces a tart, sweet, red composite fruit in late summer or early autumn. In proper botanical language, it is not a berry at all, but instead an aggregate fruit of numerous drupelets around a central core. In raspberry and other species of the subgenus Idaeobatus, the druplets separate from the core when picked, leaving a hollow fruit, whereas in blackberry the druplets stay attached to the core.

It typically grows in forest clearings or fields, particularly where fire or wood-cutting has produced open space for colonization by this opportunistic colonizer of disturbed soil. As a cultivated plant in moist temperate regions, it is easy to grow and has a tendency to spread unless cut back. Raspberry is sometimes eaten by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species - see list of Lepidoptera which feed on Rubus.

Two types are commercially available: the wild-type summer bearing, that produces an abundance of fruit on second-year canes within a relatively short period in midsummer, and double- or "ever"- bearing plants, which also bear a few fruit on first-year canes in the autumn, as well as the summer crop on second-year canes. Raspberries can be cultivated from USDA plant hardiness zones 9 to 3.

Raspberry - Growing

Raspberries are grown for two reasons: for the fresh market, and for commercial processing. Traditionally raspberries were a late summer crop, but with new technology, varieties and innovations, raspberries can be enjoyed year-round. Raspberries need a lot of sun and ample amounts of water in order to develop to their fullest. Escaped raspberries frequently appear as garden weeds, spread by seeds found in the excrement of birds.

A gold raspberry, which is pale yellow, has been selected by horticulturalists.

The black raspberry, also called a blackcap, is not the same plant, being a cultivar (usually) of Rubus occidentalis, a North American species. Other Rubus species also called raspberries include:

• Arctic raspberry (Rubus arcticus)
• Flowering raspberry (Rubus odoratus)
• Wine raspberry (Rubus phoenicolasius)
• Whitebark raspberry or Western Raspberry (Rubus leucodermis)

Not all of these are included in the same subgenus.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Raspberry", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki