Raspberry

The picture below is a raspberry bush taken by Kyle Albers in the Ames High School Prairie. They have white flowers followed by hollow red composite fruits, which are eaten fresh as a delicacy and used for making jam and wine. (Genus Rubus, family Rosaceae.)Raspberries are an important commercial fruit crop, widely grown in all temperate regions of the world. I have found evidence that this plant is a raspberry bush because I have searched the sites at the bottom of my page and found similar pictures, as well as descriptions of the plant that I took a picture of in the Ames High School Prairie. Although the plant that I found in the prairie was not bearing any fruit at this time of year, I felt it important to emphasize the importance of this plants fruit. Raspberries contain significant amounts of polyphenol antioxidants such as anthocyanin pigments linked to potential health protection against several human diseases. The aggregate fruit structure contributes to its nutritional value, as it increases the proportion of dietary fiber, placing it among plant foods with the highest fiber contents known, up to 20% fiber per total weight. Raspberries are a rich source of vitamin C, with 30 mg per serving of 1 cup (about 50% daily value), manganese (about 60% daily value) and dietary fiber (30% daily value). Contents of B vitamins 1-3, folic acid, magnesium, copper and iron are considerable in raspberries.



The following are reference sites for the information I used as well as much more:

^ Health and healing fact sheets, blackberries ~ Connecting Berry Health Benefit Researchers ^ Blackwell Synergy - Physiol Plant, Volume 110 Issue 4 Page 535-543, December 2000 (Article Abstract) ^ Nutritiondata.com, nutrient data for this listing provided by USDA SR20