North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[<dwoodard@becon.org>]

Salmonberry is Rubus spectabilis. Thimbleberry is Rubus parviflorus.
Raspberries are in the genus Rubus.

Ribes is a different genus, containing the currants and gooseberries.
Some species of Ribes are forbidden in some places
because they host white pine blister rust. To the best of my knowledge,
Rubus species have nothing to do with the rust.

Note that the Siberian black currant Ribes ussuriensis is resistant to 
white pine blister rust, and black currants such as Consort and Titania 
and some others are also resistant, being the results of crosses with 
Ribes ussuriensis. I believe that Consort and its self-sterile siblings 
Coronet and Crusader were products of the first crosses with Ribes 
ussuriensis and a European black currant, by Agriculture Canada at 
Ottawa, released very roughly sixty years ago. Titania and the other 
resistant cultivars, of higher quality, are products of later breeding.

Doug Woodard
St. Catharines, Ontario


On Sat, 5 Apr 2014 13:27:10 -0400, Ginda Fisher <list@ginda.us> wrote:
> On Apr 3, 2014, at 2:10 PM, Mike Levine wrote:
>
> > I'm growing curious about salmonberries.  Are there any cultivars
> > available?  Are there any thornless ones?  How do the fruit taste?  
> > Would
> > they likely be invasive in SE Michigan (they can get 10' tall) or do 
> > they
> > mostly stay in bounds?
>
> Speaking of invasive fruits -- I'm pretty sure they are one of the
> many species of Ribes that are illegal to plant in my area. I've 
> never
> seen them growing wild, so I don't know if they are actually 
> invasive.
>
> I have seen thimbleberry (which may also be illegal) and that was
> very tasty, although the fruit was quite small.
>
> Ginda