Cloudberries
Photo Kaido Einama
Translation: Liis
Ripening cloudberry
Cloudberry Rabamurakas Rubus chamaemorus
Every reasonably knowledgeable “bog enthusiast“ has his or her own cloudberry spot, kept as a little secret.
Chamaemorus means “with scented berries“ and that is precisely what a fully ripe cloudberry is; with regard to vitamins it is well comparable to blackcurrants.
The cloudberry fruits are still reddish and firm. When ripe, they are honey yellow and very juicy. As overripe a greyish yellow – in the old days called “pus-heads”.
Each individual part (drupe) of the aggregate fruit consists of a large seed and a juicy surrounding flesh. They may be from one to thirty; but at the top of each shoot there is only one “berry“. The cloudberry leaves are dark green and crinkled, with 5 – 7 blunt lobes; there is nothing much in a bog to confuse with them.
Very good cloudberry years return at intervals of 3-5 years.
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