Raspberry nomenclature
This week we've talked a little of Rubus occidentalis, the black
raspberry, in uk.rec.gardening. It was new to me, and I looked at a
few websites. I found that I myself would probably have called it a
bramble, or blackberry: the plant looks that way, and even roots at
the tip like a bramble and unlike more familiar raspberries, cvs and
xx of Rubus idaeus. It seems that people call it a 'raspberry' because
the berries come away hollow when picked.
Insofar as vernacular names matter at all to botanists, does science
call this species a raspberry?
Mike.
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