Native Talk Tuesday #3

The plant featured in today's Native Talk Tuesday is Rubis spectabilis, commonly known as the Salmonberry. The photo below was taken in Silver Falls State Park (of which it is quite abundant there), and is found at low to subalpine elevations throughout both the Coast Range and the Cascade Range to so far northwest that it is found in the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska. I would imagine that it is one of the types of berries that black bears and grizzlies occasionally munch on.

One of the best was to figure out if a bush is Salmonberry or a different shrub, such as a blackberry, is the way the leaves look. As I didn't have a good picture showing the leaves close up, I found one on the Veggie Gardening Tips website. The three leaves on the left it how it looks on the plant. If you fold over the top leaf, or cut it off like it shows below on the right, the remaining two leaves look like the wings of a butterfly.

Aside from that, the flowers range in color from pink to reddish purple, and the berries range in color from yellowish orange to red. When you see deep red spots on the berries, that means they are starting to go to seed. The berries look similar to raspberries and range in taste from tart to one of the best. The young stems sprouts were once gathered and peeled by native tribes in the spring to eat like a green vegetable. Perhaps the name comes from a European or American explorer watching the natives eat the berries with cooked salmon, as they were often eaten that way.

(Update: this picture was taken at Bonnie Lure State Recreation Site on 4/24/2013)

If you happen to see some berries in the Oregon State Parks, it is okay to eat a few, but you are not allowed to pick a pail to take back to camp or to take home. For those that like the taste of a salmonberry, it makes for a nice occasional snack as you hike along the trail. It also isn't allowed to take any other part of the plant out of a state park, so if you wish to take a flower or leaf for pressing, you should look outside the park.