Medicinal Monday... Thimbleberries

These fairytale-like berries, called Thimbleberries are most prized because they are rather rare. They grow in some of the highest concentrations in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, the Lake Superior Region, and in British Columbia. This rather tart berry was a favorite among Indigenous people both to eat and for medicinal purposes. It is found in Connecticut, however, it isn't found in the rest of New England or the East Coast, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

photo Kristof Zyskowski 

About Thimbleberries

This perennial shrub grows in woodlands, coniferous forests, and canyon areas under 8,000 feet around the Great Lakes and west to California, and north to Canada and Alaska. Look for them in shady, moist, cool places. Unlike an evergreen, thimbleberry shrubs lose their leaves in the winter. This shrub has large hairy palm-shaped leaves with five lobes and a fuzzy texture and can grow up to six feet high. The white flowers have five petals. The flowers that bloom in May or June resemble the flowers of the strawberry plant. The flowers turn into a fruit, that resembles a thimble, hence its name, that is ready to eat when it turns bright red. Thimbleberry season typically runs from July through August.

Culinary and Medicinal Uses

The flavor of a thimbleberry is said to be similar to raspberries but they are much tarter. First Nations of British Columbia and many North American communities ate the berries fresh and also ate the shoots that were peeked and eaten raw. Many dried the berries for later use in cakes, stews, jams, and jellies. The Cowlitz of Washington State boiled the bark to make soap. The Salish and Swinomish people like to eat young shoots with half-dried salmon. 

Blackfoot, Cahuilla, Chehalis, Clallam, Cowlitz, Gosiute, Hesquiat, Hoh, Isleta, Kuiseñ0Southern Kwakiutl, Makah, Nitinaht, Okanagan-Colville, Paiute, Karok, Pomo, Kashaya Pomo The, Quileute, Quinault, Coast Salish, Samish, Sanpoil & Nespelem, Shuswap, Upper Skagit, Snohomish, Squaxin, Swinomish, Thompson, Tsimshian, Wintoon, and Yurok eat thimbleberries raw or cook with them.

 Photo Walter Sigmand

One of the most common medicinal uses of the Thimbleberry is to make tea from its leaves and roots to treat wounds, burns, acne, and digestive problems. Tea was also commonly made from the stem of this plant and taken as a diuretic. Specifically, the Blackfoot had patients with chest trouble eat the berries while the Cowlitz made a poultice of dried leaves to treat burns. The Kwakiutl drank a decoction of the leaves to induce vomiting. They also made a powder from the leaves and applied it to wounds. The Malah ate the leaves for anemia and the Okganagan-Colville made a decoction of the roots and treated acne with it. The Saanich chewed dried leaves to stop diarrhea, and the Skagit made a salve with the ashes of the leaves and grease and applied it to swellings.

photo -Leslie Seaton

Did You Know...

The genus name Rubus is based on a Latin name for a related plant, the blackberry, and means brambles. The species name, parviflous means small flowered.

Another name for this shrub is "redcaps."

The flower of the thimbleberry shrub is the largest in the Rubus genus.

The fruit is eaten by bears and birds.

Because the fruit is so soft it is rarely shipped and cultivated.