fauntleroy tree walk
Salmonberry
Lushootseed Name:
Latin name:
Rubus spectabilis
Family:
Rosaceae, the rose family and cousin to raspberry
Habitat
This species is found along the coast from southern Alaska to central California, mostly west of the Cascade Crest, in the Rocky Mountains of northern Idaho along the Continental Divide, and interestingly enough in Japan!
Salmonberry likes to keep its feet wet, typically growing in thickets focused around streambanks in coastal to subalpine forests. This species is fairly adaptable, doing well in areas disturbed by a past of logging like this one here. Look above and notice the red alder canopy that is commonly associated with salmonberry groves.
Identification
growth habit
Salmonberry is a tall shrub that can grow up to ~13 feet tall
leaves
Compound with 3 separate leaflets showing toothed margins. If you bend the top leaflet back, the 2 bottoms show a butterfly wing pattern.
flower
Brilliant hot pink with 5 separate and spreading petals showing many yellow stamens arising from the center.
fruits
Yellow, orange, or ruby red and looking similar to a raspberry
bark
Golden-brown with peeling bark that bears few to no prickles. The branches are skinny and form dense thickets.
Look-a-likes
You might mistake this plant for many other species in the rose family that call this forest home. You can tell this species apart from thimbleberry, Pacific ninebark, pink-flowered rose, and Himalayan blackberry by looking for salmonberries’ distinctive butterfly winged leaflets and pink flowers.
Ecology
Salmonberry is a powerhouse in supporting forest dwellers all year round. This species is the first to bloom in early April, providing a well-anticipated nectar source for Pacific Northwest hummingbirds, butterflies, and other early pollinators. The fuchsia pink flowers are a brilliant attractant to these hovering and buzzing critters. In return for the sweet treat, these flying friends carry pollen to and from salmonberry plants, pollinating thickets and ensuring the arrival of succulent berries in May.
Young spring shoots are called “bear candy,” as the bears that once roamed this area before modern development enjoyed the sweet growth after a long hibernation. Swainson’s thrush is typically called “the salmonberry bird,” as this bird will arrive from its wintering grounds around the time that fruits have arrived, ready to be enjoyed by the bird. Listen for its sweet song on the spring winds. In Coast Salish tradition, the sound of the Swainson thrush soon calls salmon back to its ancestral waters. Salmonberry provides great shade to keep these waters cool for breeding fish.
Other forest animals like thrushes, waxwings, Pacific jumping mice, squirrels, coyotes, and rabbits depend on this species as a food source. Throughout the remainder of the year, small birds and mammals find refuge in the shelter that salmonberry branches provide.
Salmonberry spreads through rhizomatous roots, giving it an advantage in sprouting after disturbance. Its strong, connecting root systems make it a great soil stabilizer, keeping fine sediments out of streams for cleaner waters.
Ethnobotany
Rich in vitamin C and minerals, this plant is great taken as a root and leaf tea, eaten as berries, or enjoyed as fresh spring shoots. It has been used to treat gut and gum inflammation, as an astringent on wounds, and to cure gastrointestinal issues and anemia. The bark was boiled with salt water to treat labor pains.
Coast Salish belief is that if there are plentiful salmonberries in the early season, there will be plentiful salmon for fishing in late spring to summer. Many times salmonberry was accompanied with dried salmon or mixed with oolichan grease.
The ripening of this berry is the anticipated signal of the start of berry season. Salmonberry is mixed with its fellow forest berries such as blackberries, salal berries, and huckleberries. In modern times, this berry has been used in beer and wine making.