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Wildlife, Animals, and Plants
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Introductory
SPECIES: Rubus canadensis | Thornless Blackberry
ABBREVIATION :
RUBCAN
SYNONYMS :
NO-ENTRY
SCS PLANT CODE :
RUCA2
COMMON NAMES :
thornless blackberry
TAXONOMY :
The currently accepted scientific name for thornless blackberry is Rubus
canadensis L. (Rosaceae). No infrataxa are currently recognized [11,23].
LIFE FORM :
Shrub
FEDERAL LEGAL STATUS :
No special status
OTHER STATUS :
NO-ENTRY
COMPILED BY AND DATE :
Milo Coladonato, May 1994
LAST REVISED BY AND DATE :
NO-ENTRY
AUTHORSHIP AND CITATION :
Coladonato, Milo. 1994. Rubus canadensis. In: Remainder of Citation
DISTRIBUTION AND OCCURRENCE
SPECIES: Rubus canadensis | Thornless Blackberry
GENERAL DISTRIBUTION :
Thornless blackberry's range extends from Newfoundland to Ontario and
along the Atlantic Coast south to Georgia and inland to Kentucky and
Tennessee [27,32,35].
ECOSYSTEMS :
FRES10 White - red - jack pine
FRES11 Spruce - fir
FRES14 Oak - pine
FRES15 Oak - hickory
FRES18 Maple - beech - birch
FRES19 Aspen - birch
STATES :
CT DE GA KY ME MD MA MI MN NH
NY NC PA RI SC TN VT VA WV WI
NB NF NS ON PQ
ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS :
BLRI NERI
BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS :
NO-ENTRY
KUCHLER PLANT ASSOCIATIONS :
K093 Great Lakes spruce - fir forest
K095 Great Lakes pine forest
K096 Northeastern spruce - fir forest
K097 Southeastern spruce - fir forest
K099 Maple - basswood forest
K100 Oak - hickory forest
K102 Beech - maple forest
K103 Mixed mesophytic forest
K104 Appalachian oak forest
K107 Northern hardwoods - fir forest
K108 Northern hardwoods - spruce forest
K111 Oak - hickory - pine forest
K112 Southern mixed forest
SAF COVER TYPES :
5 Balsam fir
14 Northern pin oak
17 Pin cherry
18 Paper birch
23 Eastern hemlock
24 Hemlock - yellow birch
25 Sugar maple - beech - yellow birch
27 Sugar maple
30 Red spruce - yellow birch
31 Red spruce - sugar maple - beech
32 Red spruce
33 Red spruce - balsam fir
34 Red spruce - Fraser fir
35 Paper birch - red spruce - balsam fir
42 Bur oak
45 Pitch pine
46 Eastern redcedar
53 White oak
57 Yellow-poplar
58 Yellow-poplar - eastern hemlock
59 Yellow-poplar - white oak - northern red oak
60 Beech - sugar maple
SRM (RANGELAND) COVER TYPES :
NO-ENTRY
HABITAT TYPES AND PLANT COMMUNITIES :
Thornless blackberry is a common understory species in open deciduous
forests, on mountain ridges, and in disturbed areas [4,15,19,20,22].
Common understory associates of thornless blackberry include mountain
maple (Acer spicatum), serviceberry (Amelanchier spp.), hobblebush
(Viburnum alnifolium), scarlet elder (Sambucus pubens), common
blackberry (Rubus allegheniensis), beaked hazel (Corylus cornuta),
southern mountain cranberry (Vaccinium erythrocarpum), minnie-bush
(Menziesia pilosa), and rosebay (Rhododendron catawbiense)
[1,24,28,31].
VALUE AND USE
SPECIES: Rubus canadensis | Thornless Blackberry
WOOD PRODUCTS VALUE :
NO-ENTRY
IMPORTANCE TO LIVESTOCK AND WILDLIFE :
Thornless blackberry is an important food for wildlife. Game birds,
songbirds, raccoons, chipmunks, and squirrels eat the fruits. Deer and
rabbits extensively browse the leaves and stems [5].
PALATABILITY :
NO-ENTRY
NUTRITIONAL VALUE :
NO-ENTRY
COVER VALUE :
Thornless blackberry's extensive colonies provide excellent cover for
wildlife. The colonies create nearly impenetrable thickets where birds,
rabbits, and other animals hide. Colonies of thornless blackberry
are common nesting sites for small birds [5].
VALUE FOR REHABILITATION OF DISTURBED SITES :
Thornless blackberry has good erosion control value. It grows
satisfactorily on barren and infertile soils and invades and occupies
eroded areas. Thornless blackberry also establishes quickly on burns,
old fields, and logged areas [5,37].
OTHER USES AND VALUES :
The fruit of all species of blackberries are used to make desserts and
sweet liqueurs [39].
MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS :
Maintaining openings in the overstory is the key to promoting thornless
blackberry because invading trees and shrubs quickly shade it out.
Thornless blackberry can be encouraged or rejuvenated by removing
overhead shade, mowing, light burning, or deep cultivation [5].
Thornless blackberry is moderately sensitive to ozone [12,26].
BOTANICAL AND ECOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS
SPECIES: Rubus canadensis | Thornless Blackberry
GENERAL BOTANICAL CHARACTERISTICS :
Thornless blackberry is a deciduous, erect or arching, thicket-forming
shrub which grows to 10 feet (2-3 m) in height [3,32,35,36]. The
alternate compound leaves are 4 to 8 inches (10-20 cm) long. The
numerous flowers are borne in clusters of up to 25. The fruit is an
aggregate of small drupes, each containing a single hard-pitted nutlet
[3,32]. Rhizomes are typically about 3 to 4 inches (8-10 cm) below the
surface [9].
RAUNKIAER LIFE FORM :
Hemicryptophyte
REGENERATION PROCESSES :
Reproductive versatility is well represented in the Rubus genus [7].
Thornless blackberry reproduces from seeds, by sprouting from rhizomes
and the root crown, and by layering [5]. Vegetative propagation is the
primary source of development of the dense colonies [5,15]. Seeds are
probably dispersed by birds and animals that eat the fruit.
Aboveground stems can reach 3 feet (1 m) in height in less than 2 months
[21].
SITE CHARACTERISTICS :
Thornless blackberry grows across a wide range of sites throughout the
cool, moist climate of the Northeast [3,32]. It is very common in
woods, old fields, cool hollows, and along roadsides [5,36].
Thornless blackberry is a mid- to high-elevation shrub. Frequency of
thornless blackberry on heath balds in the Great Smoky Mountains was as
follows [37]:
Elevation 1200 m 1520 m 1980 m
Frequency* 17 50 33
*average percentage of 6 plots
SUCCESSIONAL STATUS :
Facultative Seral Species
Thornless blackberry is shade intolerant [22]. It is present in mature
spruce-fir forests in North Carolina [29], but not in sites undisturbed
for 40 or more years in New Brunswick [9]. It shows vigorous growth in
full sunlight and invades and colonizes many types of disturbed sites
[5,6]. Vegetational changes following the death of Fraser fir (Abies
fraseri) in the Great Smoky Mountains included a large (>10-fold)
increase in thornless blackberry [22]. It is frequent in canopy gaps in
spruce-fir (Picea spp.-Abies spp.) forests of the Great Smoky Mountains
[13,16]. In canopy gaps in American beech (Fagus grandifolia) forest in
the Great Smoky Mountains, thornless blackberry showed 93 percent
frequency on 14 stands [28].
SEASONAL DEVELOPMENT :
Thornless blackberry flowers from May to June. Fruits ripen in early
summer and persist into September. The seed disperses in September
[3,5].
FIRE ECOLOGY
SPECIES: Rubus canadensis | Thornless Blackberry
FIRE ECOLOGY OR ADAPTATIONS :
Thornless blackberry is favored by fire [29,35,38]. Burning typically
stimulates sprouting [5]. Root crowns and rhizomes are primarily in the
mineral soil, a morphological trait that favors high rates of survival
following fire [9]. Even severe fires provide conditions where
thornless blackberry can establish or increase [29,37].
Spruce-fir forests, in which thornless blackberry occurs, burn
infrequently but are more likely to burn after logging or other
disturbances [37].
POSTFIRE REGENERATION STRATEGY :
Rhizomatous shrub, rhizome in soil
Small shrub, adventitious-bud root crown
FIRE EFFECTS
SPECIES: Rubus canadensis | Thornless Blackberry
IMMEDIATE FIRE EFFECT ON PLANT :
Fire top-kills thornless blackberry [9]. Thornless blackberry probably
survives most fires by sprouting from rootstocks and/or rhizomes [5,9].
DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF FIRE EFFECT :
NO-ENTRY
PLANT RESPONSE TO FIRE :
Like all blackberries, thornless blackberry is well adapted to colonize
burns [6,35]. After logging and slash burning in the spruce-fir zone of
the Appalachian Mountains, blackberry species were predominant on most
sites [37]. Saunders and others [29] reported that thornless blackberry
made up 19 percent of the stems present in the shrub layer following a
severe fire in the mountains of western North Carolina.
DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF PLANT RESPONSE :
NO-ENTRY
FIRE MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS :
NO-ENTRY
REFERENCES
SPECIES: Rubus canadensis | Thornless Blackberry
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Index
Related categories for Species: Rubus canadensis
| Thornless Blackberry
|
 |
