How to Identify Wild Raspberry Plants in Winter or Early Spring

In my popular article, "How to Grow and Cultivate Wild Raspberries in your Backyard," I said that there were five types of wild berries that grew in the wild, followed by a very brief description of each wild raspberry plant. As the article was about wild raspberry cultivation, a closer look at the specifics of each variety would have been burdensome, and should best be left for a separate article. So in this article, we are going to take a closer look at how to discover and identify wild raspberries.

I said that there are five types of wild berry; however one is not an actual wild raspberry but wild blackberry, a plant commonly mistaken for a wild raspberry. The other four wild raspberry varieties are Black Raspberry, Red Raspberry, Wine Berry or Wine Raspberry, and a wild variant of the black raspberry with orange fruit.

We will start with blackberry, just to get it out of the way, so it won't be ringing in your ears like a sophisticated phone. Blackberries form a dense clump of green to gray, very thorny brush. The Blackberry canes lack any powdery color to them and also lack any fur. Average height of blackberry canes is between five and seven feet. The blackberry canes are less likely to bend over and root in the ground. In winter, the biggest difference between wild blackberries and wild raspberries is that wild blackberries look "tough." In the summer, the Blackberry leaf is larger, the flowers of the blackberry are more showy and the blackberry fruit ripens later in summer. Blackberries are edible, always are black, and are tart unless allowed to fully ripen on the vine. Blackberry spreads by underground runners as opposed to rooting tips. Blackberries usually also have a tougher root system due to their runners.

Black Raspberries are the most common variety of wild raspberry. Raspberries do not spread by runners like blackberries, rather, the raspberry canes will bend over and their tips will root naturally and create new raspberry plants. Black Raspberry canes develop a purple color and are unmistakable in winter due to their purple canes. The canes exhibit a powdery texture to the color and are covered with somewhat fine thorns. These thorns are generally a lot thicker at the bottom six to twelve inches of the cane. Black Raspberries bloom inconspicuous flowers and bear delicious black fruit in the early summer. Black Raspberry canes, left to themselves, are like men on the moon. They are on a mission to return to the earth and always grow back down to root.

The wild Red Raspberry is very similar to the wild Black Raspberry in winter, exhibiting the same color of cane. The red raspberry has a tendency to branch more naturally, and often bears a small September crop of fruit at the tips of the first-year canes. The dead fruit clusters at the tips of the canes therefore, can identify Red Raspberries. The fruit of wild red raspberries does not fill out well on a regular basis, so I would strongly recommend against cultivating the wild red raspberry and recommend growing a cultivated variety due to the poor fruit of the wild red raspberries.

Wine Berry is another variety of raspberry commonly found growing in the wild. Wine Berry differs from the other varieties of wild raspberry in that it has bright red fuzz on the canes. The fruit ripens concealed by fuzzy "petals" which are actually the old sepals. These open when the fruit is ripe, revealing a bright red berry. The fruit is bland and insipid in taste compared to Black and Red Raspberries. The plant is listed as an invasive species in some states, so be sure to check to see if it's banned before cultivating.

And last but not least, there is an orange variety of wild raspberry I have found. The orange wild raspberry grows very similar to the habit of the Black Raspberry with the noticeable differences of the canes being a bright green to yellow in winter as opposed to being purple in color and that the fruit turns yellow and ripens a dull shade of orange before deepening in color and then rotting.

To sum it up, you will see the following canes. If the canes are upright, sometimes branching, tough looking, green-gray and not powdery, you are most likely looking at a Blackberry. If the canes are purple, powdery, and arch over a lot, you are looking at a raspberry. Red Raspberry often fruits on first-year growth, while Black Raspberry always tries to root its tips into the ground. If the canes are bright red and fuzzy, you are looking at Wine Berry. And if the canes are green or yellow, it's the orange variety of Black Raspberry.

For info on how to cultivate a crop of raspberries from these plants, please refer to "How to Grow and Cultivate Wild Raspberries in Your Backyard" for an in-depth look at the culture of wild raspberries.