DEWBERRIES IN BLOOM AT THE BEACH

DEWBERRY FLOWERS, LEAVES WITH THREE LEAFLETS

Tuesday, 7:15 AM.  65 degrees F, wind SW, with occasional strong gusts.  The sky is mostly cloudy but the morning is pleasant.  Yesterday was seasonally warm and extremely windy, making it difficult to safely transport plants for the last landscape job I will do until fall, but everything really "clicked" and the plants are all in the ground.  I will check them for watering, etc. this morning and we will finish up with laying weed barrier cloth and mulch tomorrow morning.
   Buddy and I went to the beach for a quick run (he runs, I walk) yesterday morning and found dwarf raspberries, no taller than 12" to 18" inches, blooming on the back dune.  They grow in large patches in association with lowbush blueberries.  I spent some time identifying them, and I believe they are dwarf dewberry, Rubus flagellaris,  one of the many native species of raspberries, or brambles. The leaves are palmately compound, with three toothed leaflets. The long primocanes  creep across the ground, root at the tip and are lightly thorny (thus the Latin species name, flagellaris).  The flowers are borne on erect stems and are lightly sweet scented, and the red berries are edible.  I will watch for them to ripen and will report back on their flavor.