WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

The slender, prickly canes of this sprawling vine-like sub-shrub can reach 7-feet long and form dense thickets. Note the straight (not hooked) prickles on stem, compound leaves with 3–9 leaflets, small white flowers, and juicy, red berries.

FLOWER: June–August. Spike-like clusters have 1–4 white flowers with 5 petals, each 1/4-inch long (5–7 mm). Flower stem (peduncle) and sepals (below petals) have slender prickles and stalked glands.  Fruit is a 1/2-inch diameter, spherical, juicy aggregate of drupelets.

LEAVES: Alternate, deciduous. Leaves pinnately compound, 2 3/4–6 3/5 inches long (7-16 cm); 3–9 leaflets lance-shaped with serrated edges.

HABITAT: Moist sandy, rocky soils; ponderosa, mixed conifer forests.

ELEVATION: 6,000–11,500 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CO, ID, MT, NM, NV, ND, OK, OR, SD, UT, WA; widespread west of Mississippi River and across northern U. S.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Var. strigosus occurs in NM. White-stem Raspberry, R. leucodermis, in sw NM, has hooked prickles, and doesn’t have vine-like canes. The sprawling Arizona Dewberry, R. arizonensis, across central NM, has stout, hooked prickles and dark red fruit.

NM COUNTIES: Widespread in NM, except eastern plains, in mid-high-elevation, moist habitats: Bernalillo, Catron, Cibola, Colfax, Grant, Lincoln, Los Alamos, McKinley, Mora, Otero, Rio Arriba, San Juan, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Socorro, Taos, Torrance.