Rubus chamaemorus

Rubus chamaemorus (also known as cloudberry) is a species of flowering plant in the rose family, Rosaceae.

A herbaceous perennial, it produces amber-colored, edible fruit similar in structure to the blackberry. It is native to cool temperate regions, alpine and Arctic tundra, and boreal forest. It is not cultivated commercially.

It has numerous common names varying by region, such as Nordic berry, Arctic berry, baked apple, knotberry, aqpik or lowbush salmonberry.

Unlike most Rubus species, the cloudberry is dioecious, and fruit production by a female plant requires pollination from a male plant. The plant germinates from seeds spread by animals that consumed the fruit, then reproduces locally by rhizomes. Vegetative growth can be extensive, with rhizomes growing 10 meters (33 feet) or longer.

The cloudberry grows 10–25 centimetres (4–10 in) high. The short stems are unbranched and have 1-3 leaves. The leaves have five to seven handlike (palmate) lobes. After pollination, the white (sometimes reddish-tipped) flowers form raspberry-sized aggregate fruits, which are more plentiful in wooded rather than sun-exposed habitats. Consisting of between five and 25 drupelets, each fruit is initially pale red, ripening into an amber color in early autumn. After pollination the sepals close around the developing fruit, opening again when the fruit is ripe.

Cloudberries are rich in vitamin C, citric acid, malic acid, α-tocopherol, anthocyanins, and the provitamin A carotenoid, β-carotene in contents that differ across regions of Finland due to sunlight exposure, rainfall, or temperature. The ellagitannins lambertianin C and sanguiin H-6 are also present. Genotype of cloudberry variants may also affect polyphenol composition, particularly for ellagitannins, sanguiin H-6, anthocyanins and quercetin.

Cloudberries are a circumpolar boreal plant, occurring naturally throughout the Northern Hemisphere from 78°N, south to about 55°N, and are scattered south to 44°N mainly in mountainous areas and moorlands. In Europe, they grow in the Nordic countries, but are rare in the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) and Poland. They are present in the English Pennines and the Scottish Highlands, while a single, fragile site exists in the Sperrin Mountains of Northern Ireland. They occur across northern Russia east towards the Pacific Ocean as far south as Japan in the island of Hokkaido.

In North America, cloudberries grow wild across Greenland, most of northern Canada, Alaska, northern Minnesota, New Hampshire, Maine, and New York.