Botany Photo of the Day

Great photo, Daniel, though despite the blandishments of the Commission, 'soapy' is what will stick in my mind! Do you or anyone else know of a good general treatment of the genus Rubus, not too technical? Focus more on the ecology side of the wild species would work for me. I love their opportunistic exuberance in landscapes from the deep South to very far North. By the way, I don't expect you, Daniel, to spend much time on my questions - if you know or come up with something quickly that's great and much appreciated.

I was wondering if the red raspberry would be in the same group. In the 1960's most raspberries only fruited once a year. I found a nursey which had the first of the twice bearing. They were developed at the University or New Hampshire in Durham and were called Durham Raspberres. They fruited in June and again in Sept. Thank you for all the information and the picture is great.
Margaret-Rae

Lovely photograph. Too bad about the taste.

Maybe "clean" is what they mean by "soapy." Like "cozy" for "cramped."

i think certain people consistently taste soapiness in red rasps & the crosses. my mom and several of my relatives always say the same about reds and hate them. but i adore them, as does my sister, and we don't taste the soap. seems to me that the same people tend to complain of the same soapy taste in golden raisins. i wonder if it has to do with the 'super tasters' vs the 'regular' ones. great pic, btw! i really enjoy reading bpd each day.

Tammy, I think you may have hit the nail on the head.

Andrea, thanks for the comment. You must live in an apartment-style condo like me! That's real-estate language for you.

George, the best resource on Rubus that I recall was a book lent to me briefly by Dr. Hugh Daubeny (a former raspberry breeder). I'll ask him about its title when next I see him, but I think it was “Rubus in North America” by L.H. Bailey (way, way out of print, though I imagine the L.H. Bailey Hortorium would have a copy).

Margaret-Rae, most raspberries that I know have their parentage tracked, so the genetically distinct ones will have their own cultivar names (or plant-breeding number / name appellations) as opposed to being lumped together under a group designation.

Tammy, what a great comment! So we shouldn't assume the tayberry tastes soapy--it might only taste soapy to a small percentage of us, those with certain genes.

Some people have a gene that causes them to taste a certain bitter compound, found in brussel sprouts, and others cannot taste it. See this article:
Individual Differences in Taste Perception Directly Related To Genetic Variation In Taste Receptors

Maybe raspberries and their relatives also contain a compound that only some of us can taste.

Don't let Daniel's soapy description scare you away—try a tayberry for yourself!

Yep, I heartily agree with Katherine. Do taste it for yourself.

Here are a few Rubus references from Hugh. They tend toward the breeding side of things, though that is useful when trying to discern ecological information - breeders will look at properties such as growing conditions, habit, fruiting time, etc.

Abstract Bibliography of Fruit Breeding and Genetics to 1955 Rubus and Ribes - A Survey by R.L. Knight and Elizabeth Keep. Technical Communication No. 25. CAB Commonwealth Agricultural Bureau

Abstract Bibliography of Fruit Breeding and Genetics 1956 -1969 by R.L. Knight, Jill H. Parker and Elizabeth Keep. Technical Communication No. 32. CAB

Raspberries and Blackberries: Their Breeding, Diseases and Growth by D.L. Jennings - published by Academic Press. London. 1988

Brambles. Chapter 2 in Fruit Breeding. by Hugh A Daubeny - Volume 11 Vine and Small Fruits Crops. 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (edited by J. Janick and J.N. Moore)

Does anyone know a source in the USA for Tayberries? I had some several times 2 summers ago in scotland and loved the taste (no soap for me). TIA
Gwyn

Ok I've grown up on vancouver island, and in our back yard have been berries that appear to be Tayberries. So I did a little research, couple of books and some webbrowsing. I wound up with rather nice pictures and discriptions of a tayberry, the most important i've noted is that they appear hollow like rasberries when picked.
Well our berries are not hollow when picked and appear almost purple when ready to pick. My grandmother has always called them Cascade berries. This i believe is related to the fact that when they rippen they do not stay on the vine; they "Cascade" to the ground. So if you do not pick them everyday you will miss them, they are not a hardy berry nor do they like the smallist bit of rain, which in difficult living on the "wet" coast as it tends to rain alot. They are ripe early septmember to mid and only for about 10 days. But the amount of berries produced is unbelievible, They keep well frozen as you must do when they are pick, and they will not last an afternoon on the counter as they tend to turn to mush right away.
AS for the TASTE, Like a cross between a logan berry and blackberry with a nice sharp aftertaste. (NO SOAP) Your pictures (I don't have any right now) Are similar but out "Cascade" berry is narrower and longer. According to my father, My grandfather got them from a botanist in vancouver in the mid 60's after apparnetly crossing a Logan berry with a wild north american blackberry.

NOw the QUESTION, i was wondering how i would go about finding out the true heritage of this berry?

I found this site because I googled tayberry. We bought some jam in a market in B.C. Canada and found it very good. We had never heard of tayberry so I looked it up to see what they were.

The jam is excellent and if we get up that way again, we will definately buy more. This was at Gatzke's orchards and farm market at Oyama which is close to Kelowna B.C.

http://www.gatzkefarmmarkets.com/index.html

Can someone tell me where to purchace the (rubusgroup) tayberry plant in B.C. Thankyou Al