Rubus chamaemorus
 
Cloudberry

Male Plant
Flower in Ground

End of Fir River Road, North-East of Hudson Bay
18-June-2014

Note the keys to the family and the genus assume that all members of Rubus are shrubs.  However, this species is actually a herb.

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Chamaemorus: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora and Flora of Alberta leading to this species. 
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plants less than 3 dm high; NOT [plants 0.5 –2 m high]

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stems herbaceous or somewhat woody at base, dying down annually; NOT [stems more or less woody]

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stems not prickly

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leaves merely lobed; NOT [leaves compound]

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leaves rounded, shallowly several-lobed; NOT [leaves 3-5 foliolate], NOT [leaves pedate]

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flowers unisexual; NOT [flowers mostly perfect]

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petals spreading; NOT [petals erect]

 

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Rubus: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora  and Flora of Alberta leading to this genus. 
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shrubs; NOT [herbs, or with a woody base and otherwise herbaceous], NOT [small trees]

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plants generally taller than 5-15 cm

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leaves compound, distinctly divided into leaflets; NOT [leaves simple]; NOT [leaves lobed, not distinctly divided]

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leaves not linear-dissected; NOT [leaves dissected into linear divisions]

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leaves with 3-5 leaflets; NOT [leaves with 5-11 leaflets], NOT [leaves with 11-17 leaflets]

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sepal bractlets absent; NOT [bractlets alternating with the sepals]

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flowers white; NOT [flowers pink or yellow]

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carpels numerous; NOT [carpel 1], NOT [carpels mostly 5]

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ovary or ovaries superior; NOT [ovary inferior]

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hypanthium shaped like a saucer, cup or urn and free from the ovary; NOT [ovary enclosed in and adnate to the hypanthium]

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fruit more or less fleshy; NOT [fruit dry]

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carpels becoming drupelets (raspberry-like); NOT [carpels becoming achenes, enclosed in a fleshy receptacle]

 

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Rosaceae: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora  leading to this family. 
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shrubs or trees; NOT [herbs]

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plants NOT climbing

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plants with normal leaves; NOT [succulent, spiny plants with leaves absent or scale-like, inconspicuous]; NOT [leaves all basal, and tubular or with tentacles for catching insects]

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leaves alternate; NOT [leaves opposite]

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leaves compound; NOT [leaves simple]

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leaflets NOT leathery

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leaflets NOT spinose-tipped

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flowers with two floral rings, and with each petal distinct from the others

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flowers perfect; NOT [flowers dioecious or perfect]

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petals 5; NOT [petal (standard) solitary]

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stamens numerous; NOT [stamens 5]

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fruit NOT a legume