Rubus arcticus, the Arctic bramble or Arctic raspberry, Nagoonberry, or nectarberry is a species of slow-growing bramble belonging to the rose family, found in Arctic and alpine regions in the Northern Hemisphere. It has been used to create hybrid cultivated raspberries, the so-called nectar raspberries.

Description

Rubus arcticus grows most often in acidic soils rich in organic matter. It is a thornless perennial up to 30 cm tall, woody at the base but very thin farther above the ground. Flowers are in groups of 1–3, the petals pink, red, or magenta. The fruit is deep red or dark purple, with an unusual hardiness to frost and cold weather conditions.

Distribution and habitat

It grows in Alaska, northern Scandinavia and Finland, Russia, Poland, Belarus, Mongolia, northeastern China, North Korea, Estonia, Lithuania, Canada, and the northern United States as far south as Oregon, Colorado, Michigan, and Maine. It was historically present in Scotland, last seen in 1850.

Uses

The fruits of the Arctic raspberry are very tasty and, among other uses, make jam and liqueur, or flavour tea. Carl von Linné considered the Arctic raspberry – åkerbär in Swedish – a great delicacy in his Flora Lapponica (1737). Also used in Smirnoff Ice and North, and Lignell & Piispanen's Mesimarjalikööri, and Wine fruit of Arctic RaspBerry (Central Arctic in Adub). Its dark red fruit is considered a delicacy. In the Pacific Northwest of western Canada and the northwestern US, it is sometimes called the nagoon or nagoonberry, a name which derives from the Tlingit neigóon. A measure of the quality of its fruit is expressed in its Russian name княженика knyazhenika, signifying the "berry of princes".

Culture

Arctic raspberry is the provincial plant of the Norrbotten province of northern Sweden.