Thimbleberry

Rubus parviflorus

Bird foodPollinator plant

Growing it

When	Flowers June to July; fruits in August
Type	shrub
Sun	Full sun, partial shade
Water	Low, medium
Soil	pH 5.5–7
Hardiness	zone 3–7
Mature height	2 m
Mature spread	1.5 m
Spacing	1 m
Years to maturity	3
Bloom	Jun–Jul
Flower colour	White read from a published flora
In bloom	June July
Fruit	Aug
Native to	AB

lobed leaves about 15 cm long; arching canes

Where it has been recorded

BothSpecimensObservations

36 squares of about 28 km, each holding at least one record. A square is not a claim that the plant grows throughout it, and an unshaded square is unrecorded rather than empty. Darker squares hold more records, which follows roads and towns as much as it follows the plant. 2 herbarium specimens and 204 field observations this project may redraw. A filled dot is a pressed sheet somebody can re-examine; a hollow ring is a photograph identified by community agreement. Where the dots are dense is where people have looked, not where the plant is commonest, and empty ground is unsurveyed rather than unoccupied. How this map is made.

Which ecoregions the records fall in

Northern Continental Divide south AB: 469 records, high confidence
Western Alberta Upland central AB: 14 records, medium confidence
Eastern Continental Ranges central AB: 9 records, medium confidence
Cypress Upland south AB / SK: 3 records, low confidence
Fescue Grassland south AB: 3 records, low confidence

These are counts of records collected somewhere in the region, which is the resolution of the evidence: the map above shows where inside it. A region with 3 records is not the same claim as one with three hundred, so the count travels with the region. A region missing from this list means nobody has recorded it there, which is not the same as the plant being absent. Records within 900 m of a border count for neither side, because the border is not drawn finely enough to say which one they are on. Source: GBIF occurrence search + PRESERVED_SPECIMEN pass, retrieved 2026-08-24. Boundaries digitised from the National Ecological Framework for Canada v2.2 (Ecological Stratification Working Group 1995), simplified to about 900 m for display: an outline is accurate to roughly a kilometre, not to the metre. How these counts are made.

See every observation, live and current, on GBIF or iNaturalist.

Documented animals

39 documented relationships.

nectar for

Allograpta obliqua Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Andrena hippotes Specimen records from ecdysis.org
Andrena topazana LaManna et al. 2020
Black-tailed Bumble Bee Specimen records from www.bumblebeewatch.org
Brown-tailed Bumble Bee Specimen records from ecdysis.org
Confusing Bumble Bee Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Golden Northern Bumble Bee Specimen records from www.bumblebeewatch.org
Golden-haired Flower Longhorn Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Great Spangled Fritillary Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Halictus tripartitus Specimen records from ecdysis.org
Hoplitis albifrons Specimen records from ecdysis.org
Hoplitis fulgida Specimen records from ecdysis.org
Hylaeus annulatus LaManna et al. 2020
Hylaeus basalis LaManna et al. 2020
Lasioglossum inconditum Specimen records from ecdysis.org
Lasioglossum knereri Specimen records from ecdysis.org
Lasioglossum marinense Specimen records from ecdysis.org
Lasioglossum nigroviride LaManna et al. 2020
Orange-legged Furrow Bee Specimen records from ecdysis.org
Osmia bucephala LaManna et al. 2020
Osmia tristella LaManna et al. 2020
Panurginus atriceps LaManna et al. 2020
Sitka Bumble Bee Specimen records from ecdysis.org
Sphecomyia pattonii Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Tricoloured Bumble Bee Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Two-ranked Bumble Bee LaManna et al. 2020
Vancouver Bumble Bee Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Western Bumble Bee LaManna et al. 2020
Yellow Cuckoo Bumble Bee Specimen records from ecdysis.org
Yellow-fronted Bumble Bee Specimen records from ecdysis.org

pollen for

Andrena salicifloris Guzman et al. 2022
Black-tailed Bumble Bee Guzman et al. 2022
Blue Orchard Mason Bee Guzman et al. 2022
Brown-tailed Bumble Bee Guzman et al. 2022
Lasioglossum cressonii Guzman et al. 2022
Orange-legged Furrow Bee Guzman et al. 2022
Yellow-fronted Bumble Bee Guzman et al. 2022

caterpillar host for

Agromyza vockerothi Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Metallus capitalis Specimen records from iNaturalist.org

Also worth knowing

Safety

Has thorns or prickles; Toxicity not assessed, absence of a warning is not a guarantee of safety

Edible parts

Fruit

Buying it

About $25–$50 per plant (estimate), usually from a native-plant nursery. Estimate (shrub default); AB retail as of 2026

Where these numbers came from

Flower detail: not verified, a genus-level estimate