Rubus chingii seed

LATIN NAME: Rubus chingii

COMMON NAME: Chinese Raspberry

The Chinese raspberry is a handsome, upright or arching, prickly, deciduous shrub of the warm woodlands, and its fine, palmate leaves of the three to five toothed leaflets and its small, white flowers, followed by the fine, round, orange or golden-red, sweet, raspberry-like fruits, have made it a treasured and fine plant of the region. It grows as an upright or arching, prickly, deciduous shrub, reaching up to two metres or more, with the many slender, arching, prickly stems bearing the alternate, palmate leaves of the three to five pointed, toothed leaflets and, through the late spring, the small, white flowers, followed by the fine, round, orange or golden-red, sweet, many-seeded fruits. It is a species of the flowering shrub in the rose family, and it is native to the warm woodlands of the eastern Asia, while it is treasured for its fine, sweet fruits and its long history of use, and it is known as the Chinese raspberry.

In the rose family it is the golden-red, sweet-fruited raspberry of the warm woodlands, a shrub whose berries have been gathered and valued in the east for the ages.

Scientific Research & Plant Biotechnology

The Chinese raspberry appears in the fruit-science papers of the region, where the round, orange or golden-red fruits are studied for their sweet, juicy ways and their fine, bright colour. The botanists have mapped its place in the rose family and the warm woodland flora, and the wildlife ecologists have watched the bees on the small, white flowers and the birds in the fruiting canes. It is a shrub of the garden-fruit kind, and the growers of the fruiting shrubs keep it in their catalogues.

Ecological & Economic Value & Wide Applications

In the garden, the Chinese raspberry is the golden-red shrub of the fruiting corner. Its white flowers feed the bees, its sweet, round fruits feed the birds and the small creatures, and the arching, prickly canes give cover and shelter to the small birds. The fruits have been eaten fresh and made into the preserves and the drinks of the region, and the shrub grows well in the moist, well-drained ground of the sunny, sheltered spot. Golden-red, sweet and generous.

Press the fine seeds out of the ripe fruits and give them a cold, damp rest in a bag of moist sand in the fridge, then sow them shallowly in pots of loamy, free-draining soil, keep them moist and set the pots in a bright, sheltered spot, and they’ll come along in their own good time.