Unlike most Rubus species, the cloudberry is dioecious, and fruit production by a female plant requires pollination from a male plant. The cloudberry grows to high. The leaves alternate between having 5 and 7 soft, handlike lobes on straight, branchless stalks. After pollination, the white flowers form raspberry-sized aggregate fruits which are more plentiful in wooded rather than sun-exposed habitats. Consisting of between 5 and 25 drupelets, each fruit is initially pale red, ripening into an amber color in early autumn.
Distribution and ecology
Cloudberries are a circumpolar boreal plant, occurring naturally throughout the Northern Hemisphere from 78°N, south to about 55°N, and are scattered south to 44°N mainly in mountainous areas and moorlands. In Europe, they grow in the Nordic countries, Baltic states and particularly in Poland. They occur across northern Russia east towards the Pacific Ocean as far south as Japan. Due to peatland drainage and peat exploitation, they are considered endangered and are under legal protection in Germany's Weser and Elbe valleys, and at isolated sites in the English Pennines and Scottish Highlands. A single, fragile site exists in the Sperrin Mountains of Northern Ireland. In North America, cloudberries grow wild across Greenland, most of northern Canada, Alaska, northern Minnesota, New Hampshire, Maine, and New York. Wide distribution occurs due to the excretion of the indigestible seeds by birds and mammals. Further distribution arises through its rhizomes, which are up to long and grow about below the soil surface, developing extensive and dense berry patches. Cuttings of these taken in May or August are successful in producing a genetic clone of the parent plant. The cloudberry grows in bogs, marshes, wet meadows, tundra and altitudes of above sea level in Norway, requiring acidic ground. Cloudberry leaves are food for caterpillars of several Lepidoptera species. The mothColeophora thulea has no other known food plants. See alsoList of Lepidoptera that feed on Rubus.
Cultivation
Despite great demand as a delicacy the cloudberry is not widely cultivated and is primarily a wild plant. Wholesale prices vary widely based on the size of the yearly harvest, but cloudberries have gone for as little as €10/kg. Since the middle of the 1990s, however, the species has formed part of a multinational research project. Beginning in 2002, selected cultivars have been available to farmers, notably 'Apolto', 'Fjellgull' and 'Fjordgull'. The cloudberry can be cultivated in Arctic areas where few other crops are possible, for example along the northern coast of Norway.
Uses
The ripe fruits are golden-yellow, soft and juicy, and are rich in vitamin C. When eaten fresh, cloudberries have a distinctive tart taste. When over-ripe, they have a creamy texture somewhat like yogurt and a sweetened flavor. They are often made into jams, juices, tarts, and liqueurs. In Finland, the berries are eaten with heated leipäjuusto, as well as cream and sugar. In Sweden, cloudberries and cloudberry jam are used as a topping for ice cream, pancakes, and waffles. In Norway, they are often mixed with whipped cream and sugar to be served as a dessert called multekrem, as a jam or as an ingredient in homemade ice cream. Cloudberry yoghurt—molte- or multeyoughurt—is a supermarket item in Norway. In Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, cloudberries are used to make "bakeapple pie" or jam. Arctic Yup'ik mix the berries with seal oil, reindeer or caribou fat and sugar to make "Eskimo ice cream" or akutaq. The recipes vary by region. Along the Yukon and Kuskokwim River areas, white fish along with shortening and sugar are used. The berries are an important traditional food resource for the Yup'ik. Due to its high vitamin C content, the berry is valued both by Nordic seafarers and Northern indigenous peoples. Its polyphenol content, including flavonoid compounds such as ellagic acid, appears to naturally preserve food preparations of the berries. Cloudberries can be preserved in their own juice without added sugar, if stored cool. Extract of cloudberries is also used in cosmetics such as shower gels, hand creams and body lotions.
Alcoholic drinks
In Nordic countries, traditional liqueurs such as lakkalikööri are made of cloudberry, having a strong taste and high sugar content. Cloudberry is used as a flavouring for making akvavit. In northeastern Quebec, a cloudberry liqueur known as chicoutai is made.
In some northern European countries such as Norway, a common use policy to non-wood forest products allows anyone to pick cloudberries on public property and eat them on location, but only local residents may transport them from that location and only ripe berries may be picked. Since 1970 in Norway, while it has been illegal to pick unripe cloudberries, transporting ripe cloudberries from the harvest location is permitted in many counties.
