Rubus chamaemorus, cloudberry
Coladonato, Milo. 1993. Rubus chamaemorus, cloudberry. In: Fire Effects Information System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available: https://research.fs.usda.gov/feis/species-reviews/rubcha
| Abbreviation | Common Name | Scientific Name | Classification | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plants | ||||
| RUBCHA | cloudberry | Rubus chamaemorus | Life Form: Plants/Forb Kingdom: Plantae Class: Dicot Order: Rosales Family: Rosaceae Genus: Rubus | Fed. Protected: No Nativity: Native Invasiveness: Noninvasive |
Taxonomy
The currently accepted scientific name for cloudberry is Rubus chamaemorus L. [16,37]. There are no recognized subspecies, varieties, or forms.
Synonyms
- No entry
Other Common Names
bake-apple, baked-apple berry
General Distribution
Cloudberry has a circumboreal distribution. In North America it occurs from Alaska, across Canada to Greenland and Labrador and south to New York [1,16,30].
States and Provinces
- United States: AK CT ME MA NH NY RI
- Canada: AB BC NB NF NT NS ON PE PQ YT
Site Characteristics
Cloudberry grows on a broad range of sites from dry to wet but is most common on wetter sites. It reaches its greatest cover on raised bogs, meadows, and freshwater marshes [14,24,27].
Plant Communities
Cloudberry occurs as a dominant or codominant in a variety of habitats within its range. It occurs as an understory component in open or closed forest habitats, primarily in the black spruce-sphagnum (Picea mariana-Sphagnum spp.) community type. Cloudberry also dominates or codominates in dwarf-shrub types, bogs, muskegs, and open tussock tundra [3,6,7,26].
The following publications list cloudberry as a dominant or codominant species:
- Forest community types of west-central Alberta in relation to selected environmental factors [6]
- Preliminary forest plant association management guide [7]
- Vegetation types in northwestern Alaska and comparisons with communities in other Artic regions [13]
- Classification and ordination of southern boreal forest from the Hondo-Slave Lake area of central Alberta [19]
- The vegetation and retrogressive changes of peat areas ("muskegs") in central Alberta [21]
- Classification of peatlands in Newfoundland [27]
Associated understory species of cloudberry include dwarf arctic birch (Betula nana), bog birch (B. glandulosa), red raspberry (Rubus idaeus), bog labrador tea (Ledum groenlandicum), low sweet blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium), Saskatoon serviceberry (Amelanchier alnifolia), bog laurel (Kalmia polifolia), feathermoss (Pleurozium schreberi), reindeer lichens (Cladonia spp.), and sphagnum mosses [2,7,13].
Botanical Description
Cloudberry is an herbaceous perennial forb 4 to 12 inches (10-30 cm) high. It is prostrate to erect in form with slender, creeping, woody rhizomes. The leaves are 1 to 3 inches (2-8 cm) long. The aggregate fruit is composed of 6 to 18 large drupelets [16,22,32].
Raunkiaer Life Form (Raunkiaer 1934)
- Hemicryptophyte
- Geophyte
Seasonal Development
In the southern parts of its range cloudberry flowers in June and July and the berries ripen in late August and early September [37].
Regeneration Processes
Cloudberry reproduces primarily vegetatively from rhizomes. It also reproduces by seed [5,15,17].
Successional Status
Cloudberry is shade tolerant. In the bog flats of southwestern Alaska, it was one of the first species to come in after dense sphagnum cover was established [8]. Cloudberry is an important component in the understory of mid- to late-seral northern woodlands [24,31,38].
Immediate Fire Effects
Fire top-kills cloudberry. The rhizomes are not usually damaged by low- to medium-severity fires [4,14]; however, the rhizomes usually do not penetrate deep into the soil and consequently may be killed by severe fires [25].
Postfire Regeneration Strategy (Stickney 1989)
- Rhizomatous herb, rhizome in soil
Fire Adaptations
Fire is very common in the ericaceous shrub-tussock tundra where cloudberry grows. Fires burn with varying degrees of severity depending on the available fuel and moisture. Cloudberry sprouts from the rhizomes after aboveground vegetation is destroyed or damaged by fire [4,9,11,35].
Plant Response to Fire
In the second growing season after the Wickersham Dome fire near Fairbanks, Alaska, cloudberry reached a density of 3.9 percent and a frequency of 56 percent [36].
Fire Regimes
For fire regime information, search FEIS for this species by entering the species name or acronym on the home page and selecting “Fire Regime” as the publication type.
Fire Management Considerations
No entry.
Federal Status
None
Other Status
No entry.
Importance to Wildlife and Livestock
The leaves and twigs of cloudberry are browsed by moose and caribou [23]. In the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska, moose and caribou occasionally browse the new shoots [20].
Palatability and Nutritional Value
No entry.
Cover Value
No entry.
Value for Rehabilitation or Restoration of Disturbed Sites
No entry.
Other Uses
The berries of cloudberry are used by the Inuit to make jam and as a flavoring in ice cream [15,29].
Other Management Considerations
No entry.
Table A1— Forest and range ecosystems, Bureau of Land Management (BLM) physiographic regions, Kuchler plant associations, Society for American Foresters (SAF) forest cover types, and Society for Rangeland Management (SRM) rangeland cover types in which this species occurs.
Forest and Range Ecosystems (Garrison et al. 1977)
- FRES10 White - red - jack pine
- FRES11 Spruce - fir
- FRES19 Aspen - birch
- FRES24 Hemlock - Sitka spruce
BLM Physiographic Regions (Bernard and Brown 1977)
- No entry
Kuchler Plant Associations (Kuchler 1964)
- K001 Spruce - cedar - hemlock forest
- K094 Conifer bog
- K095 Great Lakes pine forest
- K096 Northeastern spruce - fir forest
- K108 Northern hardwoods - spruce forest
SAF Cover Types (Eyre 1980)
- 1 Jack pine
- 12 Black spruce
- 13 Black spruce - tamarack
- 16 Aspen
- 17 Pin cherry
- 107 White spruce
- 223 Sitka spruce
- 225 Western hemlock - Sitka spruce
SRM Rangeland Cover Types (Shiflet 1994)
- No entry
1. Anderson, J. P. 1959. Flora of Alaska and adjacent parts of Canada. Ames, IA: Iowa State University Press. 543 p. [9928]
2. Argus, George W. 1966. Botanical investigations in northeastern Saskatchewan: the subarctic Patterson-Hasbala Lakes region. Canadian Field-Naturalist. 80(3): 119-143. [8406]
3. Bliss, L. C. 1988. Arctic tundra and polar desert biome. In: Barbour, Michael G.; Billings, William Dwight, eds. North American terrestrial vegetation. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press: 1-32. [13877]
4. Bliss, L. C.; Wein, R. W. 1972. Plant community responses to disturbances in the western Canadian Arctic. Canadian Journal of Botany. 50: 1097-1109. [14877]
5. Chester, Ann L.; Shaver, Gaius R. 1982. Seedling dynamics of some cotton grass tussock tundra species during the natural revegetation of small disturbed areas. Holarctic Ecology. 5: 207-211. [21048]
6. Corns, I. G. W. 1983. Forest community types of west-central Alberta in relation to selected environmental factors. Canadian Journal of Forest Research. 13: 995-1010. [691]
7. DeMeo, Thomas. 1989. Preliminary forest plant association management guide: Ketchikan Area, Tongass National Forest. [Portland, OR]: [U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service]. 164 p. [19017]
8. Drury, William H., Jr. 1956. Bog flats and physiographic processes in the Upper Kuskokwim River region, Alaska. Contributions from the Gray Herbarium No. 178. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, The Gray Herbarium. 127 p. [12996]
9. Ebersole, James J. 1987. Short-term vegetation recovery at an Alaskan arctic coastal plain site. Arctic and Alpine Research. 19(4): 442-450. [9476]
10. Eyre, F. H., ed. 1980. Forest cover types of the United States and Canada. Washington, DC: Society of American Foresters. 148 p. [905]
11. Foster, David R. 1985. Vegetation development following fire in Picea mariana (black spruce) - Pleurozium forests of south-eastern Labrador, Canada. Journal of Ecology. 73: 517-534. [7222]
12. Garrison, George A.; Bjugstad, Ardell J.; Duncan, Don A.; [and others]. 1977. Vegetation and environmental features of forest and range ecosystems. Agric. Handb. 475. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. 68 p. [998]
13. Hanson, Herbert C. 1953. Vegetation types in northwestern Alaska and comparisons with communities in other arctic regions. Ecology. 34(1): 111-140. [9781]
14. Hanson, William A. 1979. Preliminary results of the Bear Creek fire effects studies. Proposed open file report. Anchorage, AK: U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Anchorage District Office. 83 p. [6400]
15. Holloway, Patricia S.; Alexander, Ginny. 1990. Ethnobotany of the Fort Yukon region, Alaska. Economic Botany. 44(2): 214-225. [13625]
16. Hulten, Eric. 1968. Flora of Alaska and neighboring territories. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. 1008 p. [13403]
17. Kardell, Lars. 1986. Occurrence and berry production of Rubus chamaemorus L., Vaccinium oxycoccus L. & Vaccinium microcarpum Turcz. and Vaccinium vitis-idaea on Swedish peatlands. Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research. 1(1): 125-140. [3711]
18. Kuchler, A. W. 1964. Manual to accompany the map of potential vegetation of the conterminous United States. Special Publication No. 36. New York: American Geographical Society. 77 p. [1384]
19. La Roi, George H. 1992. Classification and ordination of southern boreal forests from the Hondo - Slave Lake area of central Alberta. Canadian Journal of Botany. 70: 614-628. [18702]
20. LeResche, Robert E.; Davis, James L. 1973. Importance of nonbrowse foods to moose on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska. Journal of Wildlife Management. 37(3): 279-287. [13123]
21. Lewis, Francis J.; Dowding, E. S. 1926. The vegetation and retrogressive changes of peat areas ("muskegs") in central Alberta. Journal of Ecology. 14: 317-341. [12740]
22. Maini, J. S. 1966. Pytoecological study of sylvotundra at Small Tree Lake, N.W.T. Arctic. 19: 220-243. [8259]
23. Miller, Donald R. 1976. Taiga winter range relationships and diet. Canadian Wildlife Service Rep. Series No. 36. Ottawa, ON: Environment Canada, Wildlife Service. 42 p. (Biology of the Kaminuriak population of barren-ground caribou; pt 3) [13007]
24. Neiland, Bonita J. 1971. The forest-bog complex of southeast Alaska. Vegetatio. 22: 1-64. [8383]
25. Parminter, John. 1983. Fire-ecological relationships for the biogeoclimatic zones of the Cassiar Timber Supply Area: summary report. In: Northern Fire Ecology Project, Cassiar Timber Supply Area. Victoria, BC: Province of British Columbia, Ministry of Forests. 64 p. [9201]
26. Parminter, John. 1983. Fire-ecological relationships for the biogeoclimatic zones and subzones of the Fort Nelson Timber Supply Area. In: Northern Fire Ecology Project: Fort Nelson Timber Supply Area. Victoria, BC: Province of British Columbia, Ministry of Forests. 122 p. [1821]
27. Pollett, Frederick C. 1972. Classification of peatlands in Newfoundland. In: Proceedings, 4th International Peat Congress. 1: 101-110. [15403]
28. Raunkiaer, C. 1934. The life forms of plants and statistical plant geography. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 632 p. [2843]
29. Robuck, O. Wayne. 1985. The common plants of the muskegs of southeast Alaska. Miscellaneous Publication/July 1985. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Forest and Range Experiment Station. 131 p. [11556]
30. Roland, A. E.; Smith, E. C. 1969. The flora of Nova Scotia. Halifax, NS: Nova Scotia Museum. 746 p. [13158]
31. Shafi, M. I.; Yarranton, G. A. 1973. Vegetational heterogeneity during a secondary (postfire) succession. Canadian Journal of Botany. 51: 73-90. [15191]
32. Soper, James H.; Heimburger, Margaret L. 1982. Shrubs of Ontario. Life Sciences Misc. Publ. Toronto, ON: Royal Ontario Museum. 495 p. [12907]
33. Stickney, Peter F. 1989. Seral origin of species originating in northern Rocky Mountain forests. Unpublished draft on file at: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Intermountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory, Missoula, MT; RWU 4403 files. 10 p. [20090]
34. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Soil Conservation Service. 1982. National list of scientific plant names. Vol. 1. List of plant names. SCS-TP-159. Washington, DC. 416 p. [11573]
35. Viereck, L. A. 1983. The effects of fire in black spruce ecosystems of Alaska and northern Canada. In: Wein, Ross W.; MacLean, David A., eds. The role of fire in northern circumpolar ecosystems. New York: John Wiley and Sons Ltd.: 201-220. [7078]
36. Viereck, L. A.; Dyrness, C. T. 1979. Ecological effects of the Wickersham Dome Fire near Fairbanks, Alaska. Gen. Tech. Rep. PNW-90. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Forest and Range Experiment Station. 71 p. [6392]
37. Viereck, Leslie A.; Little, Elbert L., Jr. 1972. Alaska trees and shrubs. Agric. Handb. 410. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. 265 p. [6884]
38. Viereck, Leslie A.; Schandelmeier, Linda A. 1980. Effects of fire in Alaska and adjacent Canada--a literature review. BLM-Alaska Tech. Rep. 6. Anchorage, AK: U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Alaska State Office. 124 p. [7075]