Description
Raspberries are perennial plants with canes that live two years each. The canes are either armed with prickles or smooth, and many only produce fruit in their second year. Often reaching more than 1.8 metres (6 feet), the canes bear compound leaves with three or more toothed leaflets, depending on the species or cultivar. The leaf undersides are characteristically white to gray in color and often hairy. The white to pink flowers have five petals and produce juicy red, purple, or black (rarely orange, amber, or pale yellow) fruit. The core of the delicate fruit remains on the plant when picked, unlike that of the blackberry. Though they are commonly called “berries,” the fruit is technically an aggregate of drupelets (small drupes), each of which contains a single seed.