Rubus occidentalis

Rubus occidentalis
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Magnoliophyta
Class:	Magnoliopsida
Order:	Rosales
Family:	Rosaceae
Genus:	Rubus
Species:	R. occidentalis
Binomial name
Rubus occidentalis L.

Rubus occidentalis is a species of Rubus native to eastern North America. The common name Black Raspberry is shared with the closely related western American species Rubus leucodermis. Another common name for Rubus occidentalis is a Blackcap.

Rubus occidentalis is a deciduous shrub growing to 2-3 m tall, with thorny shoots. The leaves are pinnate, with five leaflets on leaves strong-growing stems in their first year, and three leaflets on leaves on flowering branchlets. The round-shaped fruit is edible, and has a high content of anthocyanins and ellagic acid.

It is also closely related to the European Red Raspberry (Rubus idaeus), sharing the distinctively white underside of the leaves and fruit that readily detatches from the carpel, but differing in the ripe fruit being black, and in the stems being more thorny. The black fruit makes them look superficially like Blackberries, though this is only superficial, with the taste being more like Red Raspberries. In much of the Mid-Atlantic United States, Black Raspberries are simply called Blackberries, even though they are not.

The species has been used in the breeding of many Rubus hybrids.

• 
  Black Raspberry - watercolor 1893
• Black Raspberry
  Black Raspberry

External links

• Rubus occidentalis images at bioimages.vanderbilt.edu