WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

Unlike many members of the Rose family, this 1 1/2–5-foot tall, leafy, spreading, woodland shrub has no thorns or prickles. Dense foliage often hides the white flowers and red berries. Note the stems without thorns and the simple, maple-like leaves with 5 pointed lobes.

FLOWERS: June–August. Cluster of 2–9 showy, white flowers with 5 oblong petals, each 3/8–3/4-inch long (10–20 mm), and a center crowded with numerous yellow stamens. Fruit a red, fleshy drupe to 3/4-inch thick (20 mm), spherical with hollow center.

LEAVES: Alternate with stem (petiole) 3/4–4 3/4-inches long (2–12 cm). Simple blade, 4–12 inches wide (10–30.5 cm) with 5 pointed, toothed, palmate lobes; surfaces green above, pale below, turning yellow in autumn.

HABITAT: Moist soils, shaded forests, steam sides; ponderosa-Douglas fir, spruce-fir forests.

ELEVATION: 7,000–10,600 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CA, CO, NM, NV, UT; north to AK.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Mountain or Mexican Raspberry, R. deliciosus (includes R. neomexicanus), in ne and sw NM, has leaves less than 3 1/2–inches wide, 1–2 flowers per cluster, and dry fruit. Other raspberries have thorns. Currents (Gooseberry family, Grossulariaceae) have tubular flowers in whorls, many with compound leaves and prickly stems.

NM COUNTIES: Throughout mountains of NM in moist, forested habitats: Bernalillo, Catron, Colfax, Grant, Harding, Lincoln, Los Alamos, Mora, Otero, Rio Arriba, San Juan, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Socorro, Taos, Torrance.