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Dewberry

 

 

Soils rich in lime, and light locations, suit dewberries as habitats. In humid parts of the calcareous fields and on the stone walls of the northern coast, Läänemaa and the islands they are even an uncomfortable weed: the stems and leaf stalks of dewberries have prickly spines.

 

In the shadow in a forest dewberries grow as shrubs and they have much fewer prickly spines – much depends on where the plant grows. Dewberries occur, but sparsely, in the whole of Estonia.

 

The fruits of dewberries, quite as those of raspberries,  are aggregates of drupes. Black when ripe, but covered with a strongly bluish wax layer so thtat sometimes the berries may even look greyish due to it.

 

Dewberries however are overshadowed by raspberries, despite the fact that they contain great amounts of minerals, organic acids, vitamins and what-not – in all, a quite important herb. Very likely also because the seeds in the berries are much larger in dewberries. All sorts of preserves are made from dewberries; the author’s preference is the marmalade.

 

The ripe berries will not detach easily from the receptacle, in contrast to raspberries.

 

We can find the white flowers, with a diameter of up to a couple of centimetres, on the plants until night frosts arrive.

 

Dewberry