Rubus chamaemorus
 
Cloudberry

Female Plant
Flower Top

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

Note the flower usually has five petals.  However, occasionally it will have four as in this specimen.

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