We forgot that we bought one of these a few years back and just assumed it was totally wild. Looking back at our records we did plant one whip back in 2022 and it's no longer where we put it...so maybe it survived long enough to end up in some animals who then distributed them around the yard.

The pictured grouping is off the back deck.

IIRC, those types of berries are an amalgam of fruits, similar to sunflowers, etc, right? They look delicious, and bonus points for sharing with your feral neighbors! 🤩

Yes, they are called compound berries for that reason!

Edit: I think the neighbors deserve the bonus points for leaving some for us lol. They rule the garden.

That's one of the coolest berries I've ever seen. Thanks for sharing! 💚

TIL there are two berries called thimbleberries.

These are the ones indigenous to our area. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubus_parviflorus

You sure that's a thimbleberry? Those are usually red and wider. Looks like black raspberries to me.

I feel like berry naming is so rife with pitfalls lol. This did prompt me to check if the species was listed at the nursery we bought it from but it's not, and the picture is red berries... But I'm pretty sure they are Rubus occidentalis.

Speaking of Rubus, that's awful close to ribes and one of my favorite confusing naming stories: Gooseberry? What I call a gooseberry is from the ribes family but apparently what I call a ground cherry (Physalis) is also called a gooseberry?

We also have lots of ground cherry popping up as volunteers, but those are self seeding annuals...

Edit: and a fucking porcupine killed one of the gooseberries this year 😭

LOL, let's add another one to the list:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubus_parviflorus
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubus_occidentalis (wiki doesn't call it thimbleberry but another nursery does https://northernwildflowers.ca/products/thimbleberry-black-cap-raspberry )
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubus_odoratus

See this thread:

https://crazypeople.online/comment/9747065

Huh, that's crazy. Wonder what ths regionality of those different names are. I'm in Appalachia, and I never hear thimbleberry used around here. But as you say, berry naming is pretty calvinball

Damn, those look delicious. I should get some someday soon if possible. Been years since the last time I had any, and they sound kinda good right now.

How far from the original planting, could it have spread by rhizomes without leaving out enough to be noticed?

About 20 m and unlikely - we have a section with a bunch of different compound berries including a few types of raspberries and loganberries where it was planted. We are constantly fighting the spread from those patches, but they pop up fairly close. There are none in between the planted area and this one.

Some other varieties have popped up in other areas. We have another kind coming up about 10 m from these ones (forming a triangle with the original patch) and some on the driveway eminating from the garbage storage area (where the chipmunks have a nest) and also just in the front of the house interspersed with the loosestrife.

You're so lucky!

It is always a good idea to plant delicious fruit.

😅

I don't feel so lucky when I'm trying to save the tomatoes from the extremely spikey and aggressive raspberries, or when the wildlife strip some of my other fruit plants bare, but no one seems to be eating these and they brought themselves to my back door, so I guess I am 💕

If I wasn't a bit neglectful with plants, I wouldn't mind getting a pot and growing some on the apartment balcony. Other than that, I might in the future, when I have enough money.

Mother Nature says thank you for feeding her children in these times of shrinking habitat