Standardized Phenotyping in Black Raspberry

Black raspberry ( Rubus occidentalisL.), is one of a group of economically important members of the genus Rubus. In this paper, we describe a multi-state project to phenotype 43 traits in black raspberry. Two mapping populations that had parental material from multiple sources, including wild germplasm from North Carolina, Ontario, and Maine were used to assess phenotypes in 11 geographically distinct locations. A summary of the means, sample size, and range of traits including important phenological stages, flowering, plant and fruit characteristics, and fruit chemistry traits are provided in this paper. Variation in traits across populations, locations, and years was observed but was trait dependent. This phenotypic data will be included in the Genome Database for Rosaceae (GDR) ( http:/www.rosaceae.org/).