Native Garden Plant Factsheets

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Thimbleberry (DEḰEṈIȽĆ / t̕əqʷəŋíɬč)

English Name(s): Thimbleberry, also Redcap, Western Thimble Raspberry, & White-Flowering Raspberry
Scientific Name: Rubus parviflorus
SENĆOŦEN Name: DEḰEṈIȽĆ (bush), DEḰEṈ (berries), ŦÁ¸ŦKI (edible sprouts)
lək̓ʷəŋən Name: t̕əqʷəŋíɬč (bush), t̕əqʷəŋ (berries), θéʔθq̕i (edible sprouts)

Fun Facts:
This plant forms dense thickets, growing between 0.5 to 3m tall with its grey bark. Its finely fuzzy leaves are wide (up to 25cm) and look like those of a maple as it has 3-9 lobes. Its flowers are large (4cm across), white with crinkly petals, and grow in clusters of 3-11. Much like raspberries, thimbleberries are red with a hollow core (such that it may be worn with like a thimble), and made up of an aggregate of juicy drupelets.

Hikers call thimbleberry leaves "nature's toilet paper".

Traditional Uses:
Thimbleberries could be eaten fresh, boiled, dried, or pressed into a cake with other berries. They could also be harvested earlier and stored in baskets or cedar bark bags until ripe. The broad leaves make for excellent makeshift containers, alternatively being chewed or dried into tea as a medicine for diarrhea or stomach-aches. Young sprouts in the spring can be peeled and eaten raw before they turn woody. Its bark could be boiled and used as soap.

Blooms: May to June
Season: July to September
Habitat: Low elevation open sites such as red alder forests, shorelines, fields, clearings, avalanche tracks, and roadsides
Range: Southeast Alaska through Northern Mexico, as well as Rocky Mountain states and around the Great Lakes

Further Sources:

• https://nativeplantspnw.com/thimbleberry-rubus-parviflorus/

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

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