Last summer I got some cloudberry seeds sent to me from somewhere in Europe. There is not a lot of information on what these seedlings actually look like. Pictures are of mature plants and the berries. I planted them out around a week ago and noticed these are coming up. They look similar so I am guessing they are the cloudberry but wondered if anyone can tell from this stage?
1 Like
I know this plant from the wild (assuming we’re talking about Rubus chamaemorus) & I think definitely not. Those look more like maybe some sort of Prunus or Rosaceae (above), & maybe even hawkweed or some other composite below.
I couldn’t find any decent photos of seedlings on the web (or gave up soon because goggle is now so useless), but they’d pretty much look like mini versions of the larger plants.
You’d pretty much need a sphagnum moss substrate & boreal conditions to grow this; I don’t think there’s been any success in cultivars (unlike Allåkerbär/R. arcticus/nagoonberry, of which I received half a dozen plants today from Hartmann’s!), mainly because of the demanding habitat, small size (one fruit per fertile plant), very short timing from ripe to falling off (a few days max) & general squishiness that makes even careful hand-collecting of wild fruit a difficult affair…
On the other hand, if you find yourself in the high boreal or low arctic and you get a good patch (never very big), they’re sublime to just ‘eat’. This is one of the plants I’ll just have to miss now that I’m further south. The closest they grow to MI is on Caribou Island, in the middle of Lake Superior - the most remote lake island in the world - where I found the furthest south-known patch when doing MSc fieldwork there in 1996… Not very easy to get to (as in impossible)! They also grow on the Lake Superior N shore, near Neys Provincial Park, high Adirondacks, etc. Common in wild interior Alaska. Anyway, I love this plant so sorry to drone on!
By the way, I have seen jam form Scandinavia of the ‘Felix’ brand for sale, not cheap and not quite the same as the real fruit, but possibly available in some fancy big-city shops. This is from wild-harvest as there’s no practical cultivation methods.
2 Likes
cloudberries are native to Maine but ive never came across them in my 52 years of romping through the woods. many bogs here and thats where they would grow but no luck so far.
2 Likes
No one seems to sell starts for them. Sounds like none of them have come up yet according to the other poster. Not sure if these would even grow here anyway as we are dry.
1 Like
My sister in Labrador is supposed to be sending me some rhizomes if they make it through customs. I’ve already arranged for a pair of homes for them. One with a nursery interested in trying to propagate them. Hopefully they will succeed. Even being a Jackson Treaty approved item for aboriginal position; it is just too hot here to try to grow it.
3 Likes
if you got some to spare send them to me. il do my best to give them what they
need here.
I don’t think one of mine germinated last year to be honest.
If it gets here we will see how much material there is. They just got another layer of snow up there.
1 Like