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Rubus chamaemorus
Also called Baked apple berry, Four-leaved mare's tail, Salmonberry, Bake Apple, Bakeapple, Yellow Berry, Yellowberry
Cloudberry is a low, creeping perennial of cold tundra, boreal bogs and mountain moorland across the Northern Hemisphere, grown mainly from wild-picked fruit rather than cultivated. It spreads by rhizomes, and female plants need a male plant nearby to set fruit.
Rubus chamaemorus is a species of flowering plant in the genus Rubus (which also includes blackberries and raspberries, among others). It has numerous common names varying by region, such as cloudberry, Nordic berry, Arctic berry, bakeapple, knotberry, aqpik, and lowbush salmonberry.
A herbaceous perennial, it produces amber-colored fruit similar in structure to the blackberry. It is native to cool temperate regions, alpine and Arctic tundra, and boreal forest. Although not cultivated commercially, the fruit is picked in the wild, and is versatile for use in various confectionery dishes, desserts, and beverages.
As mainly a tundra species, cloudberries grow in the wild, and are not cultivated on a commercial scale. In northern Alberta, agriculture, energy and industrial footprints reduce habitat suitability.
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. Svalbard was historically too cold for cloudberries but since 2023, warming has resulted in the establishment and survival of cloudberry plants on the islands.
When ripe, cloudberry fruits are golden-yellow, soft, and juicy, and are rich in vitamin C. When eaten fresh, cloudberries have a distinctive tart taste. They are often made into jams, juices, tarts, and liqueurs. In Finland, the berries are eaten with heated leipäjuusto (a local cheese; the name translates to "bread-cheese"), as well as cream and sugar. In Sweden, cloudberries (hjortron, also known in northern Sweden as snattren) and cloudberry jam are used as a topping for ice cream, pancakes, and waffles.
Garden dewberry · Allegheny blackberry · Arctic blackberry · Giant Blackberry · Rubus biflorus · Dewberry · White Stemmed Bramble · Korean Bramble · Rubus coriaceus · Korean Raspberry · Holy Bramble · Delicious raspberry
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Rubus chamaemorus by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
