FORAGING GUIDE
Salmonberry
Rubus spectabilis
WORDS LEIGH JOSEPH
ARTWORK VALERIE RAYNARD
Squamish Language: yetwán (berry), yetwánaý (salmonberry bush)
Range: Found growing in abundance along the coast from Alaska through British Columbia and as far south
as Oregon.
Habitat: Found growing in moist to wet conditions in both forest habitat and shaded swamps. Can be found
growing along stream banks as well, and is often found growing in dense thickets.
Parts of plant used: Berries, spring shoots, leaves and bark
S
almonberry is a shrub that can grow as tall as
three metres in height and has papery, brown
bark and small prickles all along the stem. The
leaves have three lobes with toothed leaf margins and
are compound with two lateral leaflets and one larger
terminal leaflet. If you fold down the larger terminal leaflet the remaining leaves look like butterfly wings.
Salmonberry is one of the first botanical gifts
that spring offers. In the early spring the plants send
up succulent new shoots that can be picked, peeled
and eaten fresh. The spring shoots have been harvested and eaten as a spring green by First Nations
in the Pacific Northwest for thousands of years.
My home community of Skwxwú7mesh Úxwumixw
(Squamish Nation, Canada) holds these shoots in
high regard. The Skwxwú7mesh name for the shoots
is stsá7tskaý pronounced saskay. My father told me
once that he remembered picking these as a young
boy. He said he would pick them when they were
still tender and easy to bend, like a licorice, and then
peel them on the spot and eat them as he played
and walked in the forest.
The beautiful, papery, pink blooms of the salmonberry bush are one of the first splashes of color
to grace the forests of the Pacific Northwest in the
spring. These lovely flowers can be harvested and
used as decoration for desserts. The leaves and bark
have astringent qualities and can be thoroughly dried
and used as a tea to treat diarrhea. It is important to
ensure the leaves are dried completely as the wilted
leaves can be mildly toxic.
The delicious, juicy berries can be eaten fresh
from early to late summer depending on where in the
geographic range of the species you are harvesting
them. The berries range in color from yellow or orange
to red. Some suggest that the appearance and color of
the berries resembles salmon roe and that this may be
where the common name originates. The berries are
very juicy and for this reason were most often eaten
fresh by indigenous peoples or blended in with other
drier berries to make dried fruit cakes.
The Skwxwú7mesh people believed that the
song of the Swainson’s thrush ripened the salmonberries on the bush.
SPRING/SUMMER 2016
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