Terms of flowering honey plants in the USA and Canada

According to observations of naturalists and beekeepers.

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Common name:

Wine raspberry

Scientific name:

Rubus phoenicolasius.

Other common name(s):

Wine raspberry, Japanese wineberry, Wineberry.

Life form:

Shrub.

Flowering time:

16 - 23 days.

Flowering period

in Pennsylvania for this plant is: Late MayEarly June.

NECTAR PRODUCTION:
30 kilograms per ha

SOURCE FOR HONEY BEES:
Major in some areas


General distribution:

Wine raspberry is nonnative in North America. According to a fact sheet, wine raspberry was introduced to the United States in 1890 as breeding stock for blackberry cultivars, although the date of introduction may have been earlier. It is North American distribution is from eastern Canada, New England and New York south to Georgia and west to Michigan, Illinois, and Arkansas. It is considered invasive in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia. Disjunct populations of wine raspberry may occur in Colorado (a fact sheet) and possibly British Columbia, Canada. Wine raspberry is native to China, Japan, and Korea.

Map of distribution and habitat in USA

This plant is present in at least 22 states/provinces in this country.

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Botanical description:

Wine raspberry is a deciduous, thicket-forming shrub that produces upright and arching biennial canes from a perennial root system. Canes average 1.6 to 4.9 feet (0.5-1.5 m) in length and may reach 9 feet (2.7 m) tall. Canes are bristly and thorny and covered with distinctive glandular red hairs that are 0.1 to 0.2 inch (3-5 mm) long. The hairs give the canes a reddish color when seen from a distance (a fact sheet).
Wine raspberry leaves are compound and consist of 3 serrated, blunt-tipped leaflets with purple veins that are densely white-tomentose underneath (a fact sheet). Petioles are densely hairy. The terminal leaflet is 1.6 to 3.9 inches (4-10 cm) long and about as wide. Lateral leaflets are 1.0 to 3.1 inches (2.5-8.0 cm) long. Wine raspberry has small greenish flowers with white petals that occur in a terminal panicle on glandular short-hairy pedicels. The glandular-hairy calyx lobes envelop the developing fruits and keep them covered until almost ripe.
Wine raspberry fruit is 0.4 inches (1 cm) thick and shiny red. Each fruit is composed of an aggregate of large succulent drupelets commonly referred to as a "berry". Each fruit contains numerous seeds that are 0.1 to 0.2 inch (2-4 mm) long.

Seasonal development:

In April, floricanes produce new leaves. In early May, new primocanes originate from the perennial root system. In late May, floricanes undergo lateral branching and may produce flowers and fruit; fruit production occurs in late June to August. Fruits of wine raspberry ripen together. After producing fruit in late summer, the leaves of floricanes senesce and the cane gradually dies.


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