Common names: Black Raspberry, Blackcaps

	Common names: Black Raspberry, Blackcaps

	Binomial name: Rubus occidentalis

	Garden uses: fruit

	Foliage: Plants have compound leaves with three or five leaflets.
	The leaflets have toothed margins and silvery-whitish undersides,
	and are often prickly (though much less so than the stems are).

	Flowers: Five-parted with white petals, borne in clusters at the
	ends of second-year canes.

	Wisconsin native range: found throughout Wisconsin in sunny to
	partially-shaded areas.

	A common species throughout Wisconsin, the black raspberry produces
	an abundance of fruit towards the end of June and in early July.
	With its arching canes, it commonly grows in dense thickets along
	fencelines, in ditches along rural roads, and on other disturbed
	sites. The fruits are smaller than garden-variety raspberries, with
	larger seeds, and their flavor is rather unlike that of cultivated
	red raspberries (in my opinion, much tastier). Of course, humans ar
	the only creatures that like raspberries - birds love the fruit and
	disperse the seeds to new areas.

	Black raspberries grow very similarly to garden raspberries, and
	can be propagated in much the same way. First year canes (the ones
	with silvery-green stems) can be rooted by cuttings or by layering.
	Of course, they can also be grown from seeds, but it seems that it
	would be much easier and faster to use asexual propagation
	techniques with such a prolifically-growing plant.

	Thicket dominated by black raspberries
	Raspberry leaves and fruit
	Raspberry fruits in varying stages of ripeness
	Raspberry leaves on first-year cane
	Note the silvery undersides of the leaves