Cloudberries in the midnight sun

Thorns aside, blackberry picking is a fun activity for all ages. As a child growing up in the UK, my nanna (grandmother) would take us along the lanes around her village where the brambles were heaving with ripe blackberries. We’d return with dark purple hands and lips and the occasional scrape! Any fruit we hadn’t eaten would end up in a delicious apple and blackberry pie. Several decades later, I am still picking blackberries and the proportion of fruit that makes it back home has significantly increased !

Fruits appears on flowering plants (referred to as « angiosperms ») following the pollinisation. Their role is to protect and disperse seeds, enabling the plant to perpetuate the species. In botany there are many different types of fruit. Some of our most common fruits, such as blackberries and raspberries, are actually aggregate fruits, meaning that they are composed of several parts, but that’s a topic for another time.

While some fruits are simple to harvest, such as blackberries (Rubus fruticosus)  and raspberries (Rubus idaeus), other fruit requires much more patience. One such example is the cloudberry (Rubus chamaemorus). I stumbled across this unusual plant for the first time only recently on a mountainside in Norway, although it is also present in the Scottish highlands, a region I visit annually, where it is known as « evron » or « averin ». Intrigued by its appearance, I decided to do some research and here’s what I found out.

Cloudberries thrive on peat which is waterlogged and acidic soil, and are found in northern Europe. They grow close to the ground up to a height of 25 cm and have alternate lobed leaves which are dark green when the plant is mature. Unlike other berries in the same group of species (blackberries, raspberries), the cloudberry has male and female flowers on separate plants and requires cross-pollination to produce fruit. «  Dioecy » is the botanical term for this. The flowers appear in May and June and, if pollination takes place, the fruit which will ripen in August. Resembling a large blackberry, the fruit is amber in colour. Each female plant will just produce a single berry. Cloudberries require full sunlight to produce fruit but do not like heat so thrive in the long northern summers. It is difficult to cultivate cloudberries so they generally have to be harvested in the wild. Just like truffle sites, certain areas where cloudberries grow are kept a closely guarded secret.

Considered a delicacy in some countries, cloudberries have a limited yield due to their growing conditions and climate, and also their pollination [1]. In addition, the berries are quite fragile and do not appreciate being overhandled. Like raspberries, cloudberries contain ellagitannins and ellagic acid which have antimicrobial, antioxidant and anticancer properties [1] and are extremely rich in vitamin C [2][3]. Ellagic acid is a stable molecule and so retains its properties even when it is heated or frozen. Cloudberries are used in jams, alcoholic drinks and a variety of desserts [3].

Unfortunately, I did not get to see the fruit while in Norway. However, when I am out picking blackberries this year I will think of the cloudberry flowers growing in the midnight sun and their valuable fruit.

To find out more about plants rich in vitamin C, see "3 plants which contain more vitamin C than citrus fruits!"

[1] Abolina, L. et al., Habitat Characteristics and Mineral Nutrition Status of Rubus chamaemorus L. in Latvia. Plants 2023, 12, 528.

[2] Thiem, Barbara. (2003). Rubus chamaemorus L. - a boreal plant rich in biologically active metabolites: A review. Biol Lett. 40.

[3] Nilsen, Gerd. (2006). Cloudberries—The Northern Gold. International Journal of Fruit Science. 5. 45-60.