| Author | Michaux | |
| Distribution | Moved by Weakley (2020) from R. idaeus var. strigosus to R. strigosus. Limited to the Mountains, and mainly at the higher elevations. A surprising lack of records for the northern counties, considering that this is a Northern species; no records north of Yancey County.
It has a very wide range from coast to coast, across Canada south over nearly all Western states; however, in the East it ranges mostly south to PA and IL, then down the Appalachians to extreme northeastern GA.
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| Abundance | Of local occurrence; uncommon in some places, but generally rare as a whole over the Mountains. Listed as State Threatened. | |
| Habitat | This species is limited to high elevations, mainly in spruce-fir forests and nearby thickets and openings. Weakley (2018) includes “adelgid-killed spruce-fir forests”. | |
| Phenology | Has a very late blooming period, from June to August, and fruits from July to September. | |
| Identification | This is a mostly erect, to at times leaning, deciduous shrub, reaching 4-6 feet tall; it looks quite bushy but does not usually show the long and arching stems of other blackberries. The 3 or 5 leaflets tend to look pale green above and quite pale green to whitish below. Also, they are pinnately arranged, with the basal leaflets larger than the other leaflets; other montane bushy Rubus species have palmate leaflets (each arising at the same point). The stems also are very bristly (very slender spines) but lack broad prickles. The white flowers are much smaller than on most blackberries, and the “berries” are red as opposed to black or dark purple. To become familiar with the species, you will need to head to spruce-fir forests in the southern half of the Mountains. | |
| Taxonomic Comments | The former nominate variety – R. idaeus var. idaeus – now listed by Weakley (2020) as simply R. idaeus -- is the cultivated raspberry and is native just to Europe and Asia. Weakley (2023) assigned the NC form into R. strigosus var. strigosus, as there are other varieties of the species in the Western States. The editors are not creating a separate account for that, as it would be identical to the full species account and map.
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| Other Common Name(s) | Red Raspberry | |
| State Rank | S2? [S2] | |
| Global Rank | G5T5 [G5] | |
| State Status | T | |
| US Status | | |
| USACE-agcp | | |
| USACE-emp | | |
