Arctous rubra(Rehder & E.H.Wilson) Nakai

red fruit bearberry

WFO wfo-0000543801 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Arctous rubra, photographed by F Quiec
fig. a F Quiec, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2022-06-10 / obs. 205697263
Arctous rubra, photographed by F Quiec
fig. b F Quiec, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 199907206
Arctous rubra, photographed by Syd Cannings
fig. c Syd Cannings, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 157159783
Arctous rubra, photographed by Syd Cannings
fig. d Syd Cannings, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 152610254
Arctous rubra, photographed by Syd Cannings
fig. e Syd Cannings, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 152606919
Arctous rubra, photographed by Todd Boland
fig. f Todd Boland, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 150367902
Arctous rubra, photographed by Todd Boland
fig. g Todd Boland, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 150650536
Arctous rubra, photographed by Ellyne Geurts
fig. h Ellyne Geurts, CC0 1.0 / obs. 164640026

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 28 botanical countries

Regions where Arctous rubra is native: Altay, Buryatiya, China North-Central, China South-Central, Chita, Inner Mongolia, Irkutsk, Japan, Kamchatka, Khabarovsk, Korea, Krasnoyarsk, Magadan, Manchuria, Tuva, Yakutiya, Alaska, Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Newfoundland, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Ontario, Québec, Saskatchewan, Wyoming, Yukon AltayBuryatiyaChina North-CentralChina South-CentralChitaInner MongoliaIrkutskJapanKamchatkaKhabarovskKrasnoyarskMagadanManchuriaTuvaYakutiyaAlaskaAlbertaBritish ColumbiaManitobaNewfoundlandNorthwest TerritoriesNunavutOntarioQuébecSaskatchewanWyomingYukon Korea
Native distribution of Arctous rubra, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Altay ALT ASIA-TEMPERATE
Buryatiya BRY
China North-Central CHN
China South-Central CHC
Chita CTA
Inner Mongolia CHI
Irkutsk IRK
Japan JAP
Kamchatka KAM
Khabarovsk KHA
Korea KOR
Krasnoyarsk KRA
Magadan MAG
Manchuria CHM
Tuva TVA
Yakutiya YAK
Alaska ASK NORTHERN AMERICA
Alberta ABT
British Columbia BRC
Manitoba MAN
Newfoundland NFL
Northwest Territories NWT
Nunavut NUN
Ontario ONT
Québec QUE
Saskatchewan SAS
Wyoming WYO
Yukon YUK

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 864 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -30.4 °C -20.6 °C -14.8 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 13.2 °C 17.4 °C 22.1 °C
Annual rainfall 347 mm 568 mm 1,141 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 37 mm 63 mm 184 mm

It is found where winters are arctic. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 864 research-grade observations of Arctous rubra that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 2 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Arctostaphylos rubra (Rehder & E.H.Wilson) Fernald
  • Arctous alpina var. rubra Rehder & E.H.Wilson

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. USDA PLANTS Database. common name, checklist symbol ARRU. public domain. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.