Rubus irenaeus Canopy Trees In the 1740s that dye

In the 1740s that dye became the great cash crop of colonial South Carolina

tapering foliage

The plant came to Woodlanders by way of Frank Bell

bristly frame

The startling epithet siphilitica preserves a piece of medical history: the botanist John Bartram

Rubus irenaeus Canopy Trees In the 1740s that dyeRubus irenaeus is a raspberry that has forgotten how to be a bramble. Rather than the arching, thorny canes of the fruiting kinds, the plant trails flat along the ground on downy, weakly prickled stems, laying down a dense evergreen carpet of large, rounded, coltsfoot like leaves, each six inches or more across, dark and glossy above and felted pale brown beneath. Few groundcovers of any kind bring foliage this bold to deep shade. The species hails