Smooth Blackberry

smooth blackberry
thornless blackberry

More info for the term: cover

Smooth blackberry's extensive colonies provide excellent cover for
wildlife. The colonies create nearly impenetrable thickets where birds,
rabbits, and other animals hide. Colonies of smooth blackberry
are common nesting sites for small birds [5].

More info for the terms: fruit, shrub

Smooth 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].

Smooth 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].



Distribution of smooth blackberry. Map courtesy of USDA, NRCS. 2018. The PLANTS Database.
National Plant Data Team, Greensboro, NC [34] [2018, March 29].

Smooth 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
smooth blackberry can establish or increase [29,37].

Spruce-fir forests, in which smooth blackberry occurs, burn
infrequently but are more likely to burn after logging or other
disturbances [37].

More info on this topic.

More info for the term: hemicryptophyte

Hemicryptophyte

More info for the terms: frequency, heath, shrub

Smooth 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].

Smooth blackberry is a mid- to high-elevation shrub. Frequency of
smooth 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

More info on this topic.

This species is known to occur in association with the following cover types (as classified by the Society of American Foresters):

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

More info on this topic.

This species is known to occur in the following ecosystem types (as named by the U.S. Forest Service in their Forest and Range Ecosystem [FRES] Type classification):

FRES10 White - red - jack pine
FRES11 Spruce - fir
FRES14 Oak - pine
FRES15 Oak - hickory
FRES18 Maple - beech - birch
FRES19 Aspen - birch

More info on this topic.

This species is known to occur in association with the following plant community types (as classified by Küchler 1964):

More info for the term: forest

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

Smooth 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].

Smooth 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 smooth 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].

More info for the term: shrub

Shrub

More info for the term: shrubs

Maintaining openings in the overstory is the key to promoting smooth
blackberry because invading trees and shrubs quickly shade it out.
Smooth blackberry can be encouraged or rejuvenated by removing
overhead shade, mowing, light burning, or deep cultivation [5].

Smooth blackberry is moderately sensitive to ozone [12,26].

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

More info for the term: fruit

The fruit of all species of blackberries are used to make desserts and
sweet liqueurs [39].

More info on this topic.

More info for the term: seed

Smooth blackberry flowers from May to June. Fruits ripen in early
summer and persist into September. The seed disperses in September
[3,5].

More info for the terms: fire regime, rhizome, root crown, shrub

Rhizomatous shrub, rhizome in soil
Small shrub, adventitious-bud root crown


FIRE REGIMES : Find fire regime information for the plant communities in
which this species may occur by entering the species name in the FEIS home page under "Find FIRE REGIMES".

More info for the terms: fruit, layering, root crown

Reproductive versatility is well represented in the Rubus genus [7].
Smooth 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].

More info on this topic.

More info for the terms: forest, frequency

Smooth 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 smooth 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, smooth blackberry showed 93 percent
frequency on 14 stands [28].

The scientific name for smooth blackberry is Rubus
canadensis L. (Rosaceae). No infrataxa are recognized [11,23].

Smooth blackberry has good erosion control value. It grows
satisfactorily on barren and infertile soils and invades and occupies
eroded areas. Smooth blackberry also establishes quickly on burns,
old fields, and logged areas [5,37].

Rubus canadensis L. Sp. PI. 494. 1753
Rubus Millspaughi Britton, Bull. Torrey Club 18: 366. 1891.
Stem biennial, 1-4 m. high, more or less grooved and round-angled, reddish-brown or purplish, glabrous, unarmed or with few weak straight prickles; leaves of the turions pedately 5-foliolate; stipules linear-subulate, 1-2 cm. long; petioles 5-10 cm. long, glabrous, usually unarmed; leaflets thin, dark-green, glabrous or with few scattered hairs above, glabrous or pubescent along the veins beneath, sharply serrate, ovate or obovate, rounded or subcordate at the base, abruptly long-acuminate at the apex; median leaflet 7-15 cm. long, on a petiolule 2-8 cm. long, the lateral ones slightly smaller, with petiolules 1-1.5 cm. long, the outermost about half as long as the median one, their petiolules 1-4 mm. long; leaves of the floral branches usually 3-foliolate; leaflets more oval, less acuminate, 5-10 cm. long, the median one with a petiolule 5-20 mm. long, the lateral ones subsessile; inflorescence terminal, racemose, often leafy below, more or less pilose or villous, 8-15 cm. long; bracts lanceolate, 1-1.5 cm. long; pedicels 2-4 cm. long, more or less spreading; sepals ovate, short-acuminate, whitetomentose within and on the margins; petals white, oval, 10-15 mm. long; fruit roundish, 1-1.5 cm. long, black, sour; drupelets rather numerous, glabrous.
Type locality: Canada.
Distribution: Woods, from Newfoundland to North Carolina and Michigan.

Rubus randii (L. H. Bailey) Rydb. in Britton, Man. 497. 1901
Rubus villosus Randii L. H. Bailey; Rand & Redfield, Fl. Mt. Desert 94. 1894. Rubus argutus Randii L. H. Bailey, Evol. Nat. Fr. 385. 1898.
Stems biennial, 3-7 dm. high, glabrous, somewhat angled, armed with weak straight prickles, often ascending or arching; leaves of the turions 5-foliolate; stipules subulate, 1-1.5 cm. long; petioles glabrous or rarely with a few minute prickles, 3-6 cm. long; leaflets lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, long-acuminate at the apex, acute or rounded at the base, 4-10 cm. long, thin and glabrous on both sides, sharply and somewhat doubly serrate, with lanceolate teeth ; floral branches 1-2 dm. long, glabrous; leaves 3-foliolate; leaflets elliptic or lance-elliptic, acute at both ends, 4-7 cm. long; inflorescence rather few-flowered, corymbose or shortracemose; peduncles and pedicels minutely puberulent; sepals ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, 6-7 mm. long, puberulent without, tomentose within; petals elliptic, white, about 1 cm. long; fruit hemispheric, about 8 mm. in diameter, rather dry and seedy, black; drupelets few, glabrous.
Type locality: Woods, Southwest Valley Road, Mt. Desert Island, Maine. Distribution: Woods, from Nova Scotia to Massachusetts and New York.

Rubus canadensis is a North American species of flowering plant in the rose family known by the common names smooth blackberry, Canadian blackberry, thornless blackberry and smooth highbush blackberry. It is native to central and eastern Canada (from Newfoundland to Ontario) and the eastern United States (New England, the Great Lakes region, and the Appalachian Mountains).

This rhizomatous shrub forms thickets up to 2 to 3 meters (7–10 feet) tall. The leaves are deciduous and alternately arranged, each measuring 10 to 20 centimeters (4-8 inches) long. The inflorescence is a cluster of up to 25 flowers. The fruit is an aggregate of many small drupes, each of which contains a tiny nutlet. The plant reproduces by seed, by sprouting up from the rhizome, and by layering. The stems can grow one meter (40 inches) in height in under two months.

Rubus canadensis grows in many types of forested habitat, as well as on disturbed sites. Associated plants may 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).

Many types of animals feed on the fruits and foliage of this shrub. The thickets provide cover and nesting sites.

The fruits of this plant provided food for Native American groups, who also used parts of the plant medicinally at times.