Rubus spectabilis 'Olympic Double'

Rubus spectabilis Pursh Rosaceae. The cultivar 'Olympic Double' is a double form which does not bear fruit. Salmonberry. Perennial woody herb. Distribution: West coast of North America from Alaska to California. The fruit (technically, drupelets) look like a raspberry and are edible, made into jams and used to make a purple to dull blue dye. Moerman (1998) found them used by almost every North American tribe, mostly culinary for the fruits and young shoots, my favourite 'medicinal' use being the application of chewed sprouts to the head of a child to make him grow (Kwakiutl tribe). Linnaeus (1782) recommends Rubus for scurvy (as well as fevers, rashes, and coughing up blood). Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.