These have actually been blooming on the Island for more than a week, and it was the sight of the first one I noticed that made me say to myself: “Self, you should start a blog to share your knowledge of plants and nature with others.” But I am digressing.

The Salmonberry has the showiest flowers of any of our native edible berries. The Thimbleberry (Rubus parviflorus) comes close, but although its flowers are if anything slightly larger, they are a plain white instead of a vibrant magenta, so in my subjective opinion the Salmonberry is the winner in this beauty contest. The magenta color serves to attract the migrating Rufous Hummingbirds (Selasphorus rufus), which tend to show up at the same time this species blooms.

As might be expected given the early flowering time, the Salmonberry bears ripe fruit the earliest. Although colorful, (and coming in two color phases, red and amber), flavor-wise the fruit does not repeat the aesthetic victory that this plant’s flowers do. Many regard them as watery and insipid.

For many years, so did I, but more recently they’ve finally started to grow on me a bit. They do have a unique herbal aspect to their flavor that most berries don’t. Since they do ripen the earliest, even non-fans tend to sample one or two just to kick off the berry season. Finally, if you’ve never tried them just because of the lackluster reviews other people give, by all means try them when they ripen this June; taste is a highly subjective thing, and there are those for whom this is a favorite berry.

Even if you’re not a fan of the berries straight-up, they do definitely make the basis for a delicious jelly. I’ll try and post a recipe for the latter later in the spring when the fruit becomes available.

The fruit isn’t the only part of this plant that’s edible. The young leaves and sprouts (the latter requiring peeling) are also edible and were eaten as spring greens by most indigenous peoples.

Salmonberries like lots of moisture so tend to be found in the wetter parts of the island.