Wineberry is an East Asian bramble whose are covered in fine red hairs, so whole thickets look reddish. Brought to the United States in 1890 as breeding stock for raspberries, it was first noticed growing wild in the 1970s and is now an invasive plant across much of the East; its bright red, raspberry-like berries are edible. It is also called Japanese wineberry or wine raspberry.
Appearance
- Growth form
- A deciduous shrub with arching canes up to about 9 ft (3 m) long. Each cane lives two years and flowers and fruits in its second year.
- Leaves
- Leaves have three leaflets with toothed edges and a whitish underside.
- Flowers
- Small flowers with five whitish to pink petals sit in hairy, bristly . The sepals stay closed around the young fruit until it is nearly ripe.
- Flowering time
- May–June
- Fruit
- Bright red, raspberry-like berries about 5/8 in (1.5 cm) across, ripening from late June into August. The berry pulls off its core like a raspberry.
Look-alikes
Where it lives
- Typical habitats
- Forest edges
- Woodlands
- Stream banks
- Wetland edges
- Range
- Native to Japan, Korea, and China. In the U.S. it has spread through most states east of the Mississippi River and Alabama, and it is treated as invasive in many of them, especially in the Mid-Atlantic and Appalachian states.
- Preferred conditions
- Prefers moist ground and sunny openings such as tree-fall gaps, but tolerates a wide range of light and soils.
- Flowering
Flowers May–Jun
Flowers May–Jun
Life cycle
- Seed dispersal
- Birds and other animals eat the berries and spread the seeds in their droppings.
Growing it
- Propagation
- Also spreads where cane tips touch the ground and take root, and from buds on the roots.
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- NENot EvaluatedNot yet assessed
- Threats
- Forms dense, tangled thickets that crowd out native plants.
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