Common names: Black Raspberry, Blackcaps
       
       Binomial name: Rubus occidentalis
       
       Garden uses: fruit
       
       Foliage: Plants have compound leaves with three or five leaflets.
       The leaflets have toothed margins and silvery-whitish undersides,
       and are often prickly (though much less so than the stems are).
       
       Flowers: Five-parted with white petals, borne in clusters at the
       ends of second-year canes.
       
       Wisconsin native range: found throughout Wisconsin in sunny to
       partially-shaded areas. 
       
       A common species throughout Wisconsin, the black raspberry produces
       an abundance of fruit towards the end of June and in early July.
       With its arching canes, it commonly grows in dense thickets along
       fencelines, in ditches along rural roads, and on other disturbed
       sites. The fruits are smaller than garden-variety raspberries, with
       larger seeds, and their flavor is rather unlike that of cultivated
       red raspberries (in my opinion, much tastier). Of course, humans ar
       the only creatures that like raspberries - birds love the fruit and
       disperse the seeds to new areas.
       
       Black raspberries grow very similarly to garden raspberries, and
       can be propagated in much the same way.  First year canes (the ones
       with silvery-green stems) can be rooted by cuttings or by layering.
       Of course, they can also be grown from seeds, but it seems that it
       would be much easier and faster to use asexual propagation
       techniques with such a prolifically-growing plant.
       
 (IMG) Thicket dominated by black raspberries
 (IMG) Raspberry leaves and fruit
 (IMG) Raspberry fruits in varying stages of ripeness
 (IMG) Raspberry leaves on first-year cane
 (IMG) Note the silvery undersides of the leaves