THE ANDES BERRY 



Wilson Popenoe 



AgrictiUiiral Explorer, United States Department of Agriculture 



foliate, like those of the black rasp- 

 berry; and the fruit-clusters are similar 

 to those of the latter. The luscious 

 fruits, in place of pulling off (separating 

 from the torus or receptacle) as do our 

 raspberries, must be picked like black- 

 berries. The receptacle remains firmly 

 attached within the fruit, and the calyx 

 adheres to its base. 



In this connection, it is worthy of 

 mention that the Colombian berry 

 presents conditions just the reverse of 

 ihis. Its canes, leaves, and flowers 

 resemble those of our northern black- 

 berries, while its huge fruits are rasp- 

 berries, if judged by our present stand- 

 ard, since they pull off the torus when 

 fully ripe, leaving the latter attached to 

 the plant. In other words, the Andes 

 berry is a raspberry in growth but a 

 blackberry in fruit, while the Colom- 

 bian berry is a blackberry in growth 

 and a raspberry in fruit. Our present 

 classification will have to be altered 

 somewhat if it is to include these tropi- 

 cal American species. 



A VARIABLE SPECIES 



Traveling down the Andes in search 

 of new food-plants for introduction into 

 the United States, I was much inter- 

 ested by the wide range of variation 

 exhibited by plants, both wild and cul- 

 tivated, of Ruhus glaucus} Differences 

 in the size, color, and quality of the 

 fruits were particularly striking. Some 

 of the varieties are, to my mind, 

 superior to our northern raspberries in 

 flavor, as well as in size. 



I had picked many of these berries 

 from wild plants in the mountains, 

 and had enjoyed them; but a full ap- 



^ Since this species is not well known to North American botanists, I append the following 

 brief characterization: Canes trailing to suberect, up to 5 m. long; branches, panicles, and petioles 

 glabrous, glaucus-pruinose, armed with recurved thorns; leaves pinnately trifoliate, the leaflets 

 ovate-lanceolate, long-acuminate, glabrous above and white tomentose beneath; flowers about 

 2 cm. broad, in few-flowered leafy panicles, the sepals long-acuminate, petals white, nearly as 

 long as the sepals; fruits oblong to cordate, 2 to 4 cm. long, light to dark purplish red, composed 

 of numerous drupelets which are pilose when immature. 



387 



SCATTERED throughout the high- 

 lands of tropical America, mainly 

 at elevations between 4,000 and 

 10,000 feet, are many species of Rubus, 

 some of which produce excellent fruits. 

 Few of them, however, are seen in cul- 

 tivation, though the juicy berries of a 

 dozen or more are sometimes gathered 

 from wild plants and carried to the 

 markets of large cities such as Guate- 

 mala, Bogota, and Quito. 



Rubus glaucus Benth., the Andes 

 berry (as it may well be called, after 

 the region in which it grows most 

 abundantly) is certainly one of the most 

 valuable. This species occurs as a wild 

 plant in several countries, and is culti- 

 vated in at least two, — Colombia and 

 Ecuador. That a fruit of such excellent 

 quality should have escaped the atten- 

 tion of North American horticulturists 

 until very recently seems difficult of 

 explanation. Unlike the Colombian 

 berry [Ruhus macrocarpus), described 

 in a recent number of the Journal of 

 Heredity, its distribution is not 

 limited to a narrow and rather inac- 

 cessible zone in the higher Andes: 

 not only is it common as a wild plant 

 throughout an extensive area, but it is 

 also abundant in the gardens of numer- 

 ous towns and villages. 



In character of growth and foliage 

 this species closely resembles the black 

 raspberry, while the fruit ; are more 

 like our blackberries in character. For 

 this reason it does not seem proper to 

 call it the "Andes raspberry," nor yet 

 the "Andes blackberry." The canes, 

 which are trailing to half-erect, are 

 covered with whitish bloom, and root 

 freely at the tips; the leaves are tri- 



