Wineberry AKA Rubus phoenicolasius 

Wineberry is a plant native to China, Japan and Korea.  It was introduced to the U.S. in the 1890's as a breeding stock for raspberries. It is still being used in the United States for that purpose today, though great care is now taken to contain it.  Since its introduction it has spread vigorously throughout the U.S. beginning its spread in the Appalachian Mountains and continuing to spread from there.  At this point wineberry is considered invasive in many states including Connecticut.  The plant grows rapidly forming dense thickets, crowding out native species and filling disturbed areas, preventing other native plants and trees from gaining a foothold. So many ash and oak and hemlock trees have died and fallen throughout our forests in the last several years.  Their loss has left areas of the forest floor open to the sun. Wineberry, barberry, winged euonymus and other invasive shrubs and plants are more than happy to fill those sunny vacancies.  Once they do, the dense shady areas they create can deter those trees from germinating and repopulating our forests. 

Wineberry is related to roses, and of course raspberries.  It is in the Rosaceae family.  When you pick a raspberry or a wineberry, you may think of it as a single fruit, but it is actually a cluster of small fruits, each with its own seed inside capable of germination. The botanical term for this type of fruit is aggregate fruit.  Wineberry is capable of propagating not only by its numerous seeds, which are often distributed throughout the landscape by birds and animals. but as with many other invasive shrubs, it is also capable of spreading through vegetative propagation, when tips of canes that have fallen to the ground take root. In addition, it spreads by shoots coming up from lateral growing roots.  With all those methods of propagation, you can see how this shrub can readily form a thicket. 

Here are some distinguishing characteristics that should help to identify wineberry from native varieties of raspberries.  When you examine the cane of a wineberry, you will notice several longer stiff prickles along the cane along with multitudes of fine long red hairs that make the canes appear red from a distance.  The leaves of wineberry are white on the underside and feel a bit waxy.  They appear on the branches as three heart shaped leaflets growing in alternate fashion along the cane.  As is true of many varieties of raspberries, the first-year canes, called primocanes, grow tall and straight and do not bear flowers or fruit.  The second year those canes, now called flora-canes, form side shoots and those side shoots bear flowers followed by fruit.  The small flowers grow in clusters.  Each five petaled flower is pink to purplish red.  The fruit forms within a distinctive sticky calyx that is covered in fine hairs which exude a sticky fluid.  Because of its sticky nature, the calyx will sometimes have small insects stuck to it.  When the fruit is fully ripe, it is red and also a bit sticky.  When picked, the fruit is hollow on the underside just like a raspberry.  After the fruit is plucked from its hull, the hull left behind on the plant is yellow versus the whiter color hull on a raspberry.  The taste of the fruit is said to be similar to that of a red raspberry but with slightly tarter flavor. Wineberries are perfectly edible and fine for making pie, and jam or, as the name suggests, wine.  

I have yet to encounter this plant or taste its fruit, but I've always found that once you learn about something it is then you begin to notice it, and in some instances, it may have been right under your nose all along.  I was somewhat familiar with this plant from a Facebook post from a group covering native and non-native plant identification.  Now that I have learned even more about this plant, I will definitely be keeping an eye out for it and hope you will too. It is entirely possible that wineberry is yet another invasive plant presently growing somewhere in our town.  We do not want to encourage its growth!

HOW TO REMOVE

Small colonies can be dug out fairly easily as the root system is not terribly tenacious.  Cutting back the foliage repeatedly will also eventually deplete the root system of nutrients eventually killing the plant.  If it has already formed a large hedge or thicket, you may want to consider a foliar spray with an herbicide.  Keep in mind foliar herbicides should be applied late in the growing season when the plant is sending nutrients from its foliage back to the root system.  Though you might believe the best time to try to eradicate a plant with a foliar herbicide is in the spring, when the plant is first emerging, and still small, it is at that point that the nutrients are traveling in the opposite direction from the roots to the leaves making the herbicide relatively ineffective.  It is in the late summer when the process reverses and nutrients are being passed from the crown of the plant back to the roots for winter storage that a foliar spray should be applied because the plant is in the growing stage where it will carry the herbicide to its roots where it can effectively work to kill the plant.