Hilla

cloudberry
bake-apple
baked-apple berry

More info for the terms: forb, fruit, herbaceous

Cloudberry is a herbaceous perennial forb 4 to 12 inches (10-30 cm) high.
It is prostrate to erect in form with slender, creeping, woody rhizomes.
The leaves are 1 to 3 inches (2-8 cm) long. The aggregate fruit is
composed of 6 to 18 large drupelets [16,22,32].

Cloudberry has a circumboreal distribution. In North America it occurs
from Alaska, across Canada to Greenland and Labrador and south to New
York [1,16,30].

More info for the terms: fire regime, fuel, severity, tundra

Fire is very common in the ericaceous shrub-tussock tundra where
cloudberry grows. Fires burns with varying degrees of severity
depending on the available fuel and moisture. Cloudberry sprouts from
the rhizomes after aboveground vegetation is destroyed or damaged by
fire [4,9,11,35].

FIRE REGIMES :
Find fire regime information for the plant communities in which this
species may occur by entering the species name in the FEIS home page under
"Find FIRE REGIMES".

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More info for the terms: geophyte, hemicryptophyte

Hemicryptophyte
Geophyte

More info for the term: cover

Cloudberry grows on a broad range of sites from dry to wet but is most
common on wetter sites. It reaches its greatest cover on raised bogs,
meadows, and freshwater marshes [14,24,27].

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This species is known to occur in association with the following cover types (as classified by the Society of American Foresters):

1 Jack pine
12 Black spruce
13 Black spruce - tamarack
16 Aspen
17 Pin cherry
107 White spruce
223 Sitka spruce
225 Western hemlock - Sitka spruce

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This species is known to occur in the following ecosystem types (as named by the U.S. Forest Service in their Forest and Range Ecosystem [FRES] Type classification):

FRES10 White - red - jack pine
FRES11 Spruce - fir
FRES19 Aspen - birch
FRES24 Hemlock - Sitka spruce

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This species is known to occur in association with the following plant community types (as classified by Küchler 1964):

More info for the terms: bog, forest

K001 Spruce - cedar - hemlock forest
K094 Conifer bog
K095 Great Lakes pine forest
K096 Northeastern spruce - fir forest
K108 Northern hardwoods - spruce forest

Fire top-kills cloudberry. The rhizomes are not usually damaged by low-
to medium-severity fires [4,14]; however, the rhizomes usually do not
penetrate deep into the soil and consequently may be killed by severe
fires [25]

The leaves and twigs of cloudberry are browsed by moose and caribou
[23]. In the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska, moose and caribou occasionally
browse the new shoots [20].

More info for the terms: association, bog, codominant, forest, lichens, peat, tundra, tussock

Cloudberry occurs as a dominant or codominant in a variety of habitats
within its range. It occurs as an understory component in open or
closed forest habitats, primarily in the black spruce-sphagnum (Picea
mariana-Sphagnum spp.) community type. Cloudberry also dominates or
codominates in dwarf-shrub types, bogs, muskegs, and open tussock tundra
[3,6,7,26].

The following publications list cloudberry as a dominant or codominant
species:

Forest community types of west-central Alberta in relation to selected
environmental factors [6]
Preliminary forest plant association management guide [7]
Vegetation types in northwestern Alaska and comparisons with communities
in other Artic regions [13]
Classification and ordination of southern boreal forest from the
Hondo-Slave Lake area of central Alberta [19]
The vegetation and retrogressive changes of peat areas ("muskegs") in
central Alberta [21]
Classification of peatlands in Newfoundland [27]

Associated understory species of cloudberry include dwarf arctic birch
(Betula nana), bog birch (B. glandulosa), red raspberry (Rubus idaeus),
bog labrador tea (Ledum groenlandicum), low sweet blueberry (Vaccinium
angustifolium), Saskatoon serviceberry (Amelanchier alnifolia), bog
laurel (Kalmia polifolia), feathermoss (Pleurozium schreberi), reindeer
lichens (Cladonia spp.), and sphagnum mosses [2,7,13].

More info for the terms: forb, shrub

Shrub, Forb

AK CT ME MA NH NY RI AB BC NB
NF NT NS ON PE PQ YT

The berries of cloudberry are used by the Inuit to make jam and as a
flavoring in ice cream [15,29].

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In the southern parts of its range cloudberry flowers in June and July
and the berries ripen in late August and early September [37].

More info for the terms: density, frequency

In the second growing season after the Wickersham Dome fire near
Fairbanks, Alaska, cloudberry reached a density of 3.9 percent and a
frequency of 56 percent [36].

More info for the terms: herb, rhizome

Rhizomatous herb, rhizome in soil

More info for the term: seed

Cloudberry reproduces primarily vegetatively from rhizomes. It also
reproduces by seed [5,15,17].

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More info for the terms: bog, cover

Cloudberry is shade tolerant. In the bog flats of southwestern Alaska,
it was one of the first species to come in after dense sphagnum cover
was established [8]. Cloudberry is an important component in the
understory of mid- to late-seral northern woodlands [24,31,38].

The currently accepted scientific name for cloudberry is Rubus
chamaemorus L. [16,37]. There are no recognized subspecies, varieties,
or forms.