Alan Davidson

Cultivated Raspberries and Hybrids

Appears in
Oxford Companion to Food
Oxford Companion to Food

By Alan Davidson

Published 2014

  • About

Modern cultivated raspberries in Europe are mainly varieties of R. idaeus, often crossed with other species to improve yield and disease resistance. In N. America, cultivated raspberries include R. idaeus, R. strigosus (for red raspberries), R. occidentalis (for black raspberries), and hybrids between these and others.

The climate in parts of Scotland is ideal for raspberries and it is there that some of the finest crops (90 per cent of which are eaten in Britain) are grown.

Raspberries and blackberries are to some extent interfertile, and hybrids exist. The best known of these is the loganberry. In 1881 Judge J. H. Logan of Santa Cruz, California, discovered this plant growing in his garden. It was an accidental cross between one of his own raspberries and a wild blackberry outside the fence. Loganberries are dark red and of a good size. The plants yield well, and the fruits are canned in large quantities.