Wineberries Abundant On A Hillside Facing South

We went over to a friend’s farm to pick red raspberries. The day was predicted to be a scorcher, so we arrived in mid-morning. By then the heat was on and the dew was off the brambles. Even though we knew we’d be sweating we wore boots, jeans and hats for protection from thorns and poison ivy.

Without clompers a lot of berries would only be bird or bear food as the canes really do form “impenetrable thickets”.

It turns out the kind of berries we were picking are called Wine Raspberries or Wineberries, Rubus phoenicolasius, an alien species originally from Asia. It was introduced in America for use in breeding raspberries and subsequently escaped cultivation. Wineberry has adapted so well here that it’s considered an invasive weed in Connecticut and Massachusetts.

Picking wineberries along a farm road in Juniata County, Pennsylvania.
Picking wineberries along a farm road in Juniata County, Pennsylvania. Photo taken 11 July 2011.

The hillsides in Pennsylvania where we were picking berries also had blackberries and blackcap raspberries, but there were more canes of the wineberries. The blackcaps were just finishing their fruiting and a single big berry was ripe enough to pick from each blackberry cluster.

The wineberry clusters were moving into the middle of their fruiting season. Canes in less sunny spots help to spread out the harvest as their berries ripen a little later.

Most clusters had that first berry already picked off and the ones getting the most sun were ready to fall off the vine, so to speak. We held our containers underneath a cluster with one hand while gently encouraging the bright red berries to drop into it with the other.

Iridescent red wineberries on the vine.
Iridescent red wineberries on the vine. Photo taken 11 July 2011.

Wineberry plants are a little different from the cultivated red raspberry. The most noticeable difference is the great amount of purple-red hairs and thorns on the wineberry canes and fruit clusters. It’s not surprising to see these projections on the canes, but it was unexpected to see such bristly capsules from which the fruit appears.

Fruits are enclosed by a calyx that is covered in fine reddish hairs that exude a sticky liquid. When the berry is nearing ripeness, the calyx opens to reveal a pale yellow fruit that changes color to bright red, and when fully ripe and most flavorful, to a burgundy or wine color.

When a berry is plucked from the cluster an orange cone is left behind. The cone left behind a blackcap raspberry is cream-colored.

A wineberry cluster showing orange cones left behind where berries were picked. Unripened berries are each still covered by a hairy, red calyx.
A wineberry cluster showing orange cones left behind where berries were picked. Unripened berries are each still covered by a hairy, red calyx. Photo taken 11 July 2011.

Leaves are in threes with one being larger than the other two. They are fatter leaves, or broader than, the leaves of a blackcap raspberry or blackberry shrub. The underside of the leaves appears white.

Fruit cluster at the tip of a wineberry cane. Note the red, hairy, thorny canes and three leaflets with one being larger than the other two.
Fruit cluster at the tip of a wineberry cane. Note the red, hairy, thorny canes and three leaflets with one being larger than the other two. Photo taken 11 July 2011.

Although wineberry is an introduced plant, it’s here to stay so why not benefit from it? We sure did as we picked as many as we could reach and ate a lot of them along the way. Instead of bringing home a cane or two to plant on our ridge top, we’ll leave them where they are and go back to pick more next year.

Field Pennycress With Peppery Seeds

Weeds crop up in many places, especially where the soil has been disturbed. Any gardener can attest to that. Among the weeds that appear along roads and in fields are several members of the mustard family, such as Field Pennycress and Field Peppergrass.

Field Pennycress, Thlaspi arvense, an alien to America, can be found in dry, cleared woods, in waste areas, at the roadside and in fields. Places where the soil has been disturbed are likely habitats for this foot and a half tall weed.

Mature plant of Field Pennycress showing many developing seed pods.
Mature plant of Field Pennycress showing many developing seed pods. Photo taken 13 May 2011.

These plants get started early enough that they can complete their life cycle before the end of Spring. Basal rosettes will overwinter from the previous autumn, which makes this plant a biennial. Seeds are developed as early as May, but individual plants can be found growing and producing seeds throughout the growing season.

Seed pods are flat, circular “pennies” with a definite notch at the top. This notch differentiates field pennycress from other similar seed-producing mustards.

Developing seed pods are still green.
Developing seed pods are still green. Note the definite notch at the top of each seed pod that identifies this plant as Field Pennycress. Photo taken 13 May 2011.
Leaves are toothed and clasp the stem in Field Pennycress.
Leaves are toothed and clasp the stem in Field Pennycress. Photo taken 13 May 2011.
Flowers of four small white petals.
Flowers of four small white petals are a hallmark character of a member of the Mustard family, Cruciferae, as in this field pennycress. Photo taken 9 June 2011.

As the seed pods dry out the seeds can be seen through the thinning pods, especially when held up to the light.

The small brown field pennycress seeds can be seen through the translucent seed pod.
The small brown field pennycress seeds can be seen through the translucent seed pod. Photo taken 9 June 2011.

This one small plant produced a half-teaspoon of seeds. As far as seed production goes, I’m not sure if that’s a lot from just one plant. Collecting the seeds from two plants would make a teaspoon of seeds, six plants for a tablespoon, and 18 plants for a quarter of a cup.

Field pennycress seed pods split down the middle to release their 2 mm long seeds.
Field pennycress seed pods split down the middle to release their 2 mm long seeds. Photo taken 9 June 2011.

The seeds taste like a sharp mustard or peppery flavor. If you could collect a quantity of them, they could be crushed to use in a spicy homemade mustard. Or the seeds could be used in a spice grinder as a poor gal’s pepper. Or even try cooking with it whole, say in potato salad, substituting field pennycress seeds for mustard seed, or dropping some seeds into a vegetable stir-fry to add a little spicy flavor.

Goatsbeard: Giant Yellow Flowers by the Road

Weeds at the side of the road are bountiful. So many kinds of plants grow in disturbed areas, like what you find at the edge of the road where it meets the fields. If you find a country road and travel it real slowly, you’ll see flowers that you never knew were there.

One day in May as I drove along a country road I saw these really tall dandelion-type flowers, so you know I just had to stop. What were these “giant dandelions” that reached over three feet tall?

Tall yellow flowers alongside a country road.
Tall yellow flowers alongside a country road. Photo taken 29 May 2011.
Tall yellow flowers between the agricultural field and the roadside.
Tall yellow flowers between the agricultural field and the roadside.

The height of the flower, more than a foot and a half, told me the plants weren’t dandelions. Also, the stem wasn’t hollow, like the hollow tube of a dandelion flower stem, but it felt solid.

Against my walking stick the height of the flower heads measures about 3 feet tall. The yellow flowers are large, measuring 1-2.5 inches in diameter. The composite flowers on long stalks with alternate, grass like leaves that clasp the stem make this plant Yellow Goatsbeard, Tragopogon pratensis, an alien to the U.S.A.

Composite flowers of Yellow Goatsbeard with long pointed bracts.
Composite flowers of Yellow Goatsbeard. Note the long pointed bracts of a young blossom that's not yet open at the right side of the image.

The leaves of goatsbeard clasp the stem at their base. They’re long and grass-like and tend to curl when developing near the top of the stem.

Long, grass like leaves of Yellow Goatsbeard.
Long, grass like leaves of Yellow Goatsbeard.

An interesting character is that the blossoms close up by mid-day. You can easily see this in many lawns in our area where goatsbeard attains only a few inches in height before blooming and eventually being mowed over. In fact that is where I first learned about goatsbeard. In the grass yellow goatsbeard forms colonies of a few to many plants which open happily in the sunshine and that close up in the afternoon or on a cloudy day.

Knowing that it’s often seen as a lawn weed, I was surprised to see that the three-feet tall plants were also Yellow Goatsbeard.

I’ll search through my archived pictures to see if I have a photo of the lawn variety. Can anyone share a photo of a colony of yellow goatsbeard in the lawn?