Rubus leucodermis
Common name: 
Blackcap
Western Raspberry
Pronunciation: 
RU-bus lu-ko-DER-mis
Family: 
Rosaceae
Genus: 
Type: 
Broadleaf
Native to (or naturalized in) Oregon: 
Yes
  • Deciduous shrub-vine, to 6 ft (~ 2m) arching or trailing, stems round, armed (recurved spines or prickles), old stems light bluish due to a waxy coating over red bark.  Leaves alternate, compound, 3-5(7) ovate leaflets, serrate and doubly serrate or coarsely toothed, mostly green above, much paler below, covered with soft (whitish) down.  Prickles found on stems, petioles, and sometimes leaf veins.  The stems (canes) of Rubus are often biennial, the new stems in their first year are non-flowering (they are called, primocanes); flowers form on lateral shoots on these canes in the second season (now the canes are called floricanes).  Flowers are white to pink, 2-3 cm across, borne singly or in small, 3-7, clusters (corymbs).  Fruit red, dark purple, or black aggregate of druplets, about 1 cm wide, sweet and mild-flavored.
  • Sun or shade.    Seems to grow in sand, clay, and soils with poor drainage and seasonal flooding.
  • Hardy to USDA Zone 5   Native from southern Alaska southward to British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and California, east to Utah and Montana.  Introduced to commerce in about 1829 by David Douglas.
  • leucodermis: whitish bark
Click image to enlarge
  • spring growth in habitat, floricanes

    spring growth in habitat, floricanes

  • floricane stems, spring

    floricane stems, spring

  • floricane leaves

    floricane leaves

  • flowering in habitat

    flowering in habitat

  • flowering shoots

    flowering shoots

  • flower bud and flower

    flower bud and flower

  • flower cluster

    flower cluster

  • fruiting, in habitat

    fruiting, in habitat

  • leaves and developing fruit

    leaves and developing fruit

  • developing fruit

    developing fruit

  • primo- and floricanes

    primo- and floricanes

  • primocane stem with thorns

    primocane stem with thorns

  • primocane leaf

    primocane leaf

  • fruiting in habitat

    fruiting in habitat

  • floricane, ripening fruit

    floricane, ripening fruit

  • leaf and fruit cluster

    leaf and fruit cluster

  • fruit cluster

    fruit cluster

  • leaves and ripe fruit

    leaves and ripe fruit