Rubus chamaemorus
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Rubus chamaemorus is a species of flowering plant in the rose family.
A herbaceous perennial, it produces amber-colored, edible fruit similar to the blackberry. It is native to cool temperate regions, alpine and Arctic tundra, and boreal forest.
Its English common names include cloudberry,<ref name="BSBI07">Template:BSBI 2007</ref> Nordic berry, bakeapple (in Newfoundland and Labrador), knotberry and knoutberry (in England), aqpik or low-bush salmonberry (in Alaska – not to be confused with salmonberry, Rubus spectabilis),<ref>University of Alaska @ Fairbanks, Cooperative Extension Service, Cloudberrries</ref> averin or evron (in Scotland),<ref name="foodb.ca/00161">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and chicoutai amongst English speakers in Quebec.
Description
Unlike most Rubus species, the cloudberry is dioecious, and fruit production by a female plant requires pollination from a male plant.<ref name=thiem/>
The cloudberry grows to Template:Convert high.<ref name=thiem/> The leaves alternate between having five and seven soft, handlike lobes on straight, branchless stalks. After pollination, the white (sometimes reddish-tipped) flowers form raspberry-sized aggregate fruits, which are more plentiful in wooded rather than sun-exposed habitats.<ref name=thiem/> Consisting of between five and 25 drupelets, each fruit is initially pale red, ripening into an amber color in early autumn.
Chemistry
Cloudberries are rich in vitamin C and ellagic acid,<ref name=thiem/> citric acid, malic acid, Template:Nowrap, anthocyanins, and the provitamin A carotenoid, Template:Nowrap in contents that differ across regions of Finland due to sunlight exposure, rainfall, or temperature.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The ellagitannins lambertianin C and sanguiin H-6 are also present.<ref name=Kahkonen>Template:Cite journal</ref> Genotype of cloudberry variants may also affect polyphenol composition, particularly for ellagitannins, sanguiin Template:Nowrap, anthocyanins and quercetin.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Distribution and habitat
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.<ref name=thiem/> In Europe, they grow in the Nordic countries, but are rare in the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) and Poland.<ref name=thiem/> They are present in the English Pennines and the Scottish Highlands, while a single, fragile site exists in the Sperrin Mountains of Northern Ireland.<ref name=habitas>Template:Cite web</ref> They occur across northern Russia east towards the Pacific Ocean as far south as Japan in the island of Hokkaido.<ref name=thiem/>
In North America, cloudberries grow wild across Greenland, most of northern Canada, Alaska, northern Minnesota, New Hampshire, Maine, and New York.<ref name=thiem/><ref>Template:BONAP</ref>
Wide distribution occurs due to the excretion of the indigestible seeds by birds and mammals. Further distribution arises through its rhizomes, which are up to Template:Convert long and grow about Template:Convert below the soil surface, developing extensive and dense berry patches.<ref name=thiem/> Cuttings of these taken in May or August are successful in producing a genetic clone of the parent plant.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The cloudberry grows in bogs, marshes, wet meadows, and tundra, and at elevations of Template:Convert above sea level in Norway, requiring acidic ground (between 3.5 and 5.0 pH).<ref name=thiem/>
Ecology
Cloudberry leaves are food for caterpillars of several Lepidoptera species. The larvae of the moth Coleophora thulea has no other known food plants.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Conservation
Due to peatland drainage and peat exploitation, they are considered endangered<ref name=thiem/> and are under legal protection in Germany's Weser and Elbe Valleys.Template:Citation needed
Cultivation
Despite great demand as a delicacy (particularly in Sweden, Norway, and Finland), the cloudberry is not widely cultivated and is primarily a wild plant. Wholesale prices vary widely based on the size of the yearly harvest, but cloudberries have retailed for as little as €10/kg (in 2004).<ref name="bloomberg-Heiskanen-&-Erkheikki">Template:Cite news</ref>
Since the middle of the 1990s, however, the species has formed part of a multinational research project. Beginning in 2002, selected cultivars have been available to farmers, notably 'Apolto' (male), 'Fjellgull' (female), and 'Fjordgull' (female).Template:Citation needed Finnish self-pollinated 'Nyby' variety is monoecious, i.e. the female and male flowers are located in the same plant unit.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The cloudberry can be cultivated in Arctic areas where few other crops are possible, for example along the northern coast of Norway.Template:Citation needed
Uses
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When ripe, cloudberry fruits are golden-yellow, soft, and juicy, and are rich in vitamin C.<ref name=thiem/> When eaten fresh, cloudberries have a distinctive tart taste. When over-ripe, they have a creamy texture somewhat like yogurt and a sweet flavor.<ref name="farmflavor/cloudberries">Template:Cite web</ref> They are often made into jams, juices, tarts, and liqueurs. In Finland, the berries are eaten with heated Template:Lang (a local cheese; the name translates to "bread-cheese"), as well as cream and sugar. In Sweden, cloudberries (Template:Lang, also known in northern Sweden as snattren)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and cloudberry jam are used as a topping for ice cream, pancakes, and waffles. Cloudberry filmjölk (soured milk) is available in supermarkets.Template:Citation needed
In Norway, they are often mixed with whipped cream and sugar to be served as a dessert called Template:Lang (cloudberry cream), as a jam or as an ingredient in homemade ice cream. Cloudberry yoghurt—Template:Lang or Template:Lang—is a supermarket item in Norway.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, cloudberries are used to make 'bakeapple pie', jams, jellies, fruit wines, and toppings for cheesecakes and ice cream. They are also frequently included in flavourings for beer, herbal teas, ice cream, alcoholic cocktails, and kombucha.
Arctic Yup'ik mix the berries with seal oil, reindeer or caribou fat (which is diced and made fluffy with seal oil) and sugar to make "Eskimo ice cream" or akutaq.<ref name=thiem/> The recipes vary by region. Along the Yukon and Kuskokwim River areas, white fish (pike) along with shortening and sugar are used. The berries are an important traditional food resource for the Yup'ik.Template:Citation needed
Due to its high vitamin C content,<ref name=thiem/> the berry is valued both by Nordic seafarers and Northern indigenous peoples. Its polyphenol content, including flavonoid compounds such as ellagic acid, appears to naturally preserve food preparations of the berries.<ref name="thiem">Template:Cite journal</ref> Cloudberries can be preserved in their own juice without added sugar, if stored cool.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Extract of cloudberries is also used in cosmetics such as shower gels, hand creams' and body lotions.Template:Citation needed
Alcoholic drinks
In Nordic countries, traditional liqueurs such as Template:Lang (Finland) are made of cloudberry,<ref name="aaflora/roruch">Template:Cite web</ref> having a strong taste and high sugar content. In Sweden, cloudberry flavoured gin is produced in limited quantities.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Cloudberry is used as a flavouring for making akvavit. In northeastern Quebec, a cloudberry liqueur known as Template:Lang (Innu-aimun name) is made.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In Newfoundland and Labrador, cloudberries (called "bakeapples") are used to make fruit wine, bitters, or are brewed into beer.
Polyphenol extracts from cloudberries have improved storage properties when microencapsulated using maltodextrin Template:Nowrap.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> At least 14 volatile compounds, including vanillin, account for the aroma of cloudberries.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Harvesting on public property
In some northern European countries such as Norway, a common-use policy on non-wood forest products allows anyone to pick cloudberries on public property and eat them on location, but only local residents may transport them from that location.<ref name="berryFAO">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Transporting ripe cloudberries from the harvest location is permitted in many countries.<ref name=berryFAO />
Harvesting unripe cloudberries in Norway was illegal between 1970 and 2004.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref> Many people believe that it is still illegal to harvest unripe cloudberries in Norway, but that law is no longer in effect.<ref name=":0" />
In culture
The cloudberry appears on the Finnish version of the 2 euro coin.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The name of the hill Template:Lang in Breadalbane in the Scottish Highlands means "Hill of the Cloudberries" in Scottish Gaelic.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Transactions of Camden's Britain (1637 edition) indicate the etymological origins of 'cloud-berry', the plant's name in old Lancashire dialect: 'Pendelhill [in Lancashire] advenceth itselfe up the skie ... and in the very top thereof bringeth forth a peculiar plant which, as though it came out of the clowdes, they tearme clowdes-berry'.<ref>John Howard Nodal, George Milner, A Glossary of the Lancashire Dialect, Part 1, 1875, 84</ref> In Norrland cloudberries are known as Norrland's gold.<ref>Template:Cite web </ref>
In Newfoundland and Labrador, several communities, including Garnish and Forteau, host festivals celebrating the harvest of cloudberries.