Raspberry

Raspberry (Rubus idaeus) is a deciduous shrub of the rose family, up to about 1.5 m tall, whose stems live for two years. Its leaves have three to five leaflets, and its small white to greenish-white flowers hang singly or in loose clusters before the red fruit forms. The USDA plant guide, which describes the American form of the species, gives the fruit as a rounded red raspberry about 2 cm long and broad, ripening between July and September.

The same guide notes that this form grows along the edges of swamps and bogs and often appears after fires, clearings or other disturbance. It does well in well-drained loamy soil, in sun or partial shade, and needs adequate soil moisture. Its fruits feed grouse, other birds, raccoons, coyotes, squirrels and chipmunks, and its thickets give rabbits and squirrels shelter and birds a place to nest.

For beekeepers the flowers are a nectar source. Honey from Rubus species is gathered across Europe and counts most in Finland, Norway and Sweden. In France the protected Miel de Cévennes counts raspberry honey as its own monofloral type, and raspberry pollen is one of the markers that tie that honey to the region, whose area covers parts of Ardèche, Aveyron, Gard and Lozère.

Raspberry honey from the Cévennes is pale and crystallised, with a very fruity smell of stewed raspberries and an acidic aroma.

Why this matters to you: where wild or garden raspberries are common, bees work the same canes that later give the berries, and in the Cévennes that flow can even be sold under its own name.