Rubus allegheniensis | |
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Allegheny blackberry 1913 illustration [1] | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Rosids |
Order: | Rosales |
Family: | Rosaceae |
Genus: | Rubus |
Subgenus: | Rubus subg. Rubus |
Species: | R. allegheniensis |
Binomial name | |
Rubus allegheniensis | |
Synonyms [3] [4] [5] | |
Synonymy
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Rubus allegheniensis is a North American species of highbush blackberry in Section Alleghenienses of the genus Rubus, a member of the rose family. [6] It is the most common and widespread highbush blackberry in eastern and central North America. It is commonly known as Allegheny blackberry. [7]
The characteristics of Rubus allegheniensis can be highly variable. [8] It is an erect bramble, typically 1.5 metres (5 feet) but occasionally rarely over 2.4 m (8 ft) high, with single shrubs approaching 2.4 m or more in breadth, although it usually forms dense thickets of many plants. The leaves are alternate, compound, ovoid, and have toothed edges. [8] [9] The canes have many prickles, with white, 5-petal, 19-millimetre (3⁄4-inch) flowers in late spring and glossy, deep-violet to black, aggregate fruit in late summer. [8] It is shade intolerant. [10]
R. allegheniensis is very common throughout forests in eastern and central North America. It is also naturalized in a few locations in California and British Columbia. [11] [12]
The berries are edible and nutritious. They can be eaten raw or cooked into various treats, including pies, cobblers, muffins, jellies, and jams. [8]
Many mammals eat the fruit, including elk, foxes, American black bears, rabbits, raccoons, opossums, squirrels, mice, and chipmunks, and deer will browse the young canes. Blackberries are also an important food source for many species of birds. The mammals and birds that eat the fruit then disperse the seed in their droppings, enabling the plant to spread to new locations. A wide variety of native bees, butterflies, beetles, flies, ants, wasps, and other insects are attracted to the nectar and pollen of the flowers, and caterpillars, grasshoppers, beetles eat the leaves. Birds and small mammals use the thickets formed by the canes for shelter. [8]
The presence of the species influences the dynamics of the understory vegetation of many forests in the eastern United States. An abundance of R. allegheniensis encourages new tree seedlings. Where the effects of herbivorous animals (such as whitetail deer) reduce the abundance of Allegheny blackberry, a competitor, Sitobolium punctilobulum (hay-scented fern), takes over; where S. punctilobulum becomes common, the growth of tree seedlings is restricted. [13]
Concentrations of R. allegheniensis increase greatly after events that destroy taller shrubs and trees and thus permit more light into the understory, such as fires or widespread blowdown. [10] [14] These populations often decline in later years as the tree seedlings sheltered by the blackberry canes grow and reduce the amount of light reaching the lower levels. [10]
Rubus is a large and diverse genus of flowering plants in the rose family, Rosaceae, subfamily Rosoideae, with over 1,350 species, commonly known as brambles.
The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by many species in the genus Rubus in the family Rosaceae, hybrids among these species within the subgenus Rubus, and hybrids between the subgenera Rubus and Idaeobatus. The taxonomy of blackberries has historically been confused because of hybridization and apomixis, so that species have often been grouped together and called species aggregates.
Rubus spectabilis, the salmonberry, is a species of bramble in the rose family Rosaceae, native to the west coast of North America from west-central Alaska to California, inland as far as Idaho. Like many other species in the genus Rubus, the salmonberry plant bears edible fruit, typically yellow-orange or red in color, resembling raspberries in appearance.
Rubus phoenicolasius is an Asian species of raspberry in the rose family, native to China, Japan, and Korea.
Rubus parviflorus, commonly called thimbleberry, is a species of Rubus native to northern temperate regions of North America. The plant has large hairy leaves and no thorns. It bears edible red fruit similar in appearance to a raspberry, but shorter, almost hemispherical. It has not been commercially developed for the retail berry market, but is cultivated for landscapes.
Rubus pensilvanicus, known commonly as Pennsylvania blackberry, is a prickly bramble native to eastern and central North America from Newfoundland south to Georgia, west as far as Ontario, Minnesota, Nebraska, Missouri, and Arkansas. The species is also established as a naturalized plant in California.
Rubus laciniatus, the cutleaf evergreen blackberry or evergreen blackberry, is a species of Rubus, native to Eurasia. It is an introduced species in Australia and North America. It has become a weed and invasive species in forested habitats in the United States and Canada, particularly in the Northeast and along the Pacific Coast.
Sitobolium punctilobulum, the eastern hayscented fern or hay-scented fern, is a species of fern native to eastern North America, from Newfoundland west to Wisconsin and Arkansas, and south in the Appalachian Mountains to northern Alabama; it is most abundant in the east of its range, with only scattered populations in the west. It is the sole species in genus Sitobolium.
Rubus armeniacus, the Himalayan blackberry or Armenian blackberry, is a species of Rubus in the blackberry group Rubus subgenus Rubus series Discolores Focke. It is native to Armenia and northern Iran, and widely invasive elsewhere. Both its scientific name and origin have been the subject of much confusion, with much of the literature referring to it as either Rubus procerus or Rubus discolor, and often mistakenly citing its origin as western European. Flora of North America, published in 2014, considers the taxonomy unsettled, and tentatively uses the older name Rubus bifrons.
Rubus ursinus is a North American species of blackberry or dewberry, known by the common names California blackberry, California dewberry, Douglas berry, Pacific blackberry, Pacific dewberry and trailing blackberry.
Rubus lasiococcus is a species of wild blackberry known by the common names roughfruit berry and dwarf bramble. It is native to western North America from British Columbia to northern California, where it grows in mountain forests. In the southern half of its range the plant is commonly found in a plant community in the understory of mountain hemlock and Shasta red fir.
Rubus pubescens is a herbaceous perennial widespread across much of Canada and the northern United States, from Alaska to Newfoundland, south as far as Oregon, Colorado, and West Virginia.
Rubus canadensis is a North American species of flowering plant in the rose family known by the common names smooth blackberry, Canadian blackberry, thornless blackberry and smooth highbush blackberry. It is native to central and eastern Canada and the eastern United States.
Rubus flagellaris, the northern dewberry, also known as the common dewberry, is a North American species perennial subshrub species of dewberry, in the rose family. This dewberry is distributed across much of Canada, Mexico, and the United States. It grows in diverse habitats ranging from drier savannas to temperate deciduous forests.
Rubus argutus is a North American species of prickly bramble in the rose family. It is a perennial plant native to the eastern and south-central United States. Common names are sawtooth blackberry or tall blackberry after its high growth.
Rubus alumnus is a North American species of highbush blackberry in section Alleghenienses of the genus Rubus, a member of the rose family. It is native to eastern and central Canada and the eastern and central United States.
Rubus boyntonii, also called Boynton's dewberry, is a rare North American species of flowering plant in the rose family. It has been found only in the States of Virginia and North Carolina in the east-central United States.
Rubus flavinanus is a rare North American species of flowering plant in the rose family. It has been found only in the eastern United States primarily in the Appalachian Mountains of eastern West Virginia and western Maryland, but with a few populations in southern Vermont.
Rubus frondisentis is an uncommon North American species of flowering plant in the rose family. It has been found in Québec and in the northeastern United States.
Rubus perspicuus is a rare North American species of flowering plant in the rose family. It has been found only in Michigan and Wisconsin in the north-central United States.