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Thornless Blackberries, Rubus canadensis
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Almost anyone who has walked a Smokies hiking
trail in the summertime has experienced one or more of those open sunny areas where the blackberry vines have taken-over the
trail. Ouch! is the most common reminder that these thorny plants, by Mother Nature's
Design, do not wish to be disturbed. Sometimes, however, we get lucky enough to encounter a group of those
plants which seem to be almost without any thorns. Botanists call them Rubus canadensis. Supposedly,
according to park service botanists, they frequently occur across a wide range of elevations
in the Smokies.
I respectfully disagree.
Ask almost any experienced
hiker in the Smokies and I think you'll find the nearly unanimous opinion that those "thornless" blackberry vines known by
the botanists as Rubus canadensis typically occur only ABOVE the 4,500' - 5,000' elevation range. My recent
hike along the full length of Welch Ridge trail solidly reinforced my belief about the magic elevation of 5,000' for the thorns vs. no thorns.
Hiking partner Janice & I hiked from
Clingman's Dome to Cold Spring Gap via the AT and Welch Ridge trails last week (July 7, 2009) and as we turned onto Welch
Ridge trail at an elevation of approximately 5,400' above the Earth's oceans, we immediately encountered dense thickets of blackberry
vines arching across the trail at heights nearing 8' - 10' above the ground.
Although they made hiking much more difficult, blessedly, they were mostly without thorns. Such was
the case until the trail elevation started to drop to around 5,000' at which point those similar-looking blackberry bushes
suddenly starting biting-back when we pushed through them. Ouch!
This change to a sub-5,000' level occurs after only about 1.3 miles along Welch Ridge
trail and generally continues for most of its 7.3 mile length. I still have the scars to prove it.
I invite those of you who'd like to experience this first-hand to take a walk along
Welch Ridge trail this week before someone in the park service gets up the nerve to command a work crew to visit that
thorny trail with sling blades and weed eaters. Be sure to take your machette, leather chaps and long sleeved-shirt.
You'd better take something to eat too since it is way too early in the season for those higher elevation berries to
be ripe enough to eat.
To see the list of species for the Rubus plant genus listed as
being found in the Smokies, check out the park's Trees and Shrubs Checklist.
Coming soon: Jan's hike journal for our Welch Ridge + Cold
Spring Gap hike.
Posted 7/12/2009, updated 7/16/09.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | Key to Checklist
Abundance
c = Common—characteristic and dominant
f = Frequent—generally
encountered
o = Occasional—well distributed, but nowhere abundant
i = Infrequent—scattered
locales throughout park
s = Scarce—several locales or scattered small populations
r
= Rare—l or 2 locales, small populations
vr =Very rare—single locale, few individuals
h
= Historic—documented in park’s flora, but not seen for at least 50 years
x = Believed extirpated,
or not seen for at least 50 years
Range
lo = Low elevations—850’-2,500’
mid = Middle elevations—2,500’~4,500’
hi
= High elevations—4,500’-6,600’
wr = Wide range of elevations
hs =Found near old homesites
*Non-native species Rubus allegheniensis hairy blackberry
f, lo
Rubus alumnus blackberry o, lo
Rubus argutus highbush blackberry
f, lo
Rubus canadensis smooth blackberry f, wr
Rubus flagellaris Northern dewberry
o, lo
Rubus hispidus swamp dewberry r, lo
Rubus idaeus ssp. strigosus American
red raspberry s, hi
Rubus occidentalis black raspberry o, lo
Rubus odoratus
purple-flowering raspberry o, wr
*Rubus phoenicolasius wineberry r, lo
Rubus
suus Jennison’s blackberry o, lo
Rubus trux truculent blackberry s,
lo
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