Native Garden Plant Factsheets

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Salmonberry (ELILE¸IȽĆ / ʔəliləʔíɬč)

English Name(s): Salmonberry
Scientific Name: Rubus spectabilis
SENĆOŦEN Name: ELILE¸IȽĆ (bush), ELILE¸ (berries), ŦÁ¸ŦKI (edible sprouts), PELPE¸KXELI¸Ḱ or NENEL¸PKI¸Ḱ (berries when white), NENEL¸PW̱I¸Ḱ (berries when golden), NENEL¸ȻEMI¸Ḱ (berries when ruby), NENEL¸KXELI¸Ḱ (berries when black)
lək̓ʷəŋən Name: ʔəliləʔíɬč (bush), ʔəlilə (berries), θéʔθq̕i (edible sprouts)

Fun Facts:
This plant forms dense thickets and grows up to 4m tall with golden brown shedding bark. Zigzagging twigs emerge from its arching stems, which can sometimes have scattered prickles or bristles. The dark green leaves have three leaflets which are sharply toothed. Its flowers are pink to reddish-purple, 4cm across, and grow in groups of 1-2 but sometimes up to 4. Salmonberries are diverse in colour, often yellow to reddish, very mushy, and edible albeit an acquired taste; much like raspberries they have a hollow core. Each bush has its own variety of berries which differ in colour, sweetness, and taste to other bushes.

Traditional Uses:
Salmonberries are one of the first berries to ripen. Though they could not be dried due to their water content, fresh berries were eaten raw or steamed, along with eulachon grease, dried salmon spawn, or just salmon (perhaps one of the reasons they are called salmonberry, if not for their similar appearance to roe). Young sprouts gathered in the spring were eaten raw or steamed, after being peeled. Shredded and boiled salmonberry bark could be used to treat cuts, burns, and other wounds.

The salmonberries supposedly ripen from the song of the salmonberry bird (also called Swainson's thrush), after it calls out the names of the colours of the berries.

Blooms: April to May
Season: May to July
Habitat: Often in the shade of moist to wet environments like stream edges, avalanche tracks, forests, wet logged areas, and other disturbed sites
Range: Mostly low to subalpine elevations on the coast from Southern Alaska to Northern California, but also in Northern Idaho and Eastern British Columbia

Further Sources:

• https://nativeplantspnw.com/salmonberry-rubus-spectabilis/

• Saanich Ethnobotany by Nancy J. Turner & Richard J. Hebda

• Plants of Coastal British Columbia by Jim Pojar & Andy MacKinnon