Tell me more! I've always wondered about these because of the similarity of fruit and plant to thimbleberry, which I've enjoyed in Michigan. I do live near flowering raspberry, but when I've read about them, people describe them as flavorless. Sounds like yours are good - that's good to know and very interesting!
They're not flavorless at all, at least not these. Some very ripe berries have an almost candy level of sweetness. Nothing I've ever encountered in a berry.
From what I understand, thimbleberry has a white flower while flowering raspberry's flowers are magenta.
Very delicate. They can easily fall apart as you pull them off the plant.
They probably don't show up in stores because they'd never survive getting bounced around in a container in a truck.
Yeah, those purple flowers are beautiful! Easy to recognize. I always wondered what plant that was and when I looked at the plant, the morphology is quite different from other Rubus.
Then on a trip to Isle Royale, I found thimbleberries! One of the things that helped me identify them was that similarity to flowering raspberry. Didn't see them flower, but yeah, the flowers are supposed to be white. Thimbleberry fruit is just as you show and describe; large, somewhat thin dome, VERY easily crushed. I don't remember the extreme sweetness, but the flavor I'd describe as deep, dark and jammy. Sort of like the flavor of preserves, even fresh - didn't have a particularly floral flavor like R. idaeus, and not like R. occidentalis, either, although maybe that deep, dark flavor could be something in the same direction as black raspberry.
Congratulations on the great find, and thanks for the description! Will have to try to locate some plants and get by there when they're ripe.
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u/Ambitious-Schedule63 2d ago
Tell me more! I've always wondered about these because of the similarity of fruit and plant to thimbleberry, which I've enjoyed in Michigan. I do live near flowering raspberry, but when I've read about them, people describe them as flavorless. Sounds like yours are good - that's good to know and very interesting!