Blackberry currant

This article is about the bramble fruit, not blackberry currant be confused with the tree fruit Morus nigra, black raspberry, or dewberry. Pacific Northwest of Canada and the United States, where it grows out of control in urban and suburban parks and woodlands. When picking a blackberry fruit, the torus stays with the fruit.

With a raspberry, the torus remains on the plant, leaving a hollow core in the raspberry fruit. The term bramble, a word referring to any impenetrable thicket, has in some circles traditionally been applied specifically to the blackberry or its products, though in the United States it applies to all members of the genus Rubus. The usually black fruit is not a berry in the botanical sense of the word. Botanically it is termed an aggregate fruit, composed of small drupelets. Second-year flowering, fruiting floricanes to the left.

First-year primocanes without flowers or fruit growing on the right. Unmanaged mature plants form a tangle of dense arching stems, the branches rooting from the node tip on many species when they reach the ground. Vigorous and growing rapidly in woods, scrub, hillsides, and hedgerows, blackberry shrubs tolerate poor soils, readily colonizing wasteland, ditches, and vacant lots. The flowers are produced in late spring and early summer on short racemes on the tips of the flowering laterals. The drupelets only develop around ovules that are fertilized by the male gamete from a pollen grain.

The most likely cause of undeveloped ovules is inadequate pollinator visits. One of the earliest known instances of blackberry consumption comes from the remains of the Haraldskær Woman, the naturally preserved bog body of a Danish woman dating from approximately 2,500 years ago. Forensic evidence found blackberries in her stomach contents, among other foods. Blackberry plants were used for traditional medicine by Greeks, other European peoples, and aboriginal Americans. A 1771 document described brewing blackberry leaves, stem, and bark for stomach ulcers.

Blackberry fruit, leaves, and stems have been used to dye fabrics and hair. Native Americans have even been known to use the stems to make rope. The shrubs have also been used for barriers around buildings, crops and livestock. The wild plants have sharp, thick prickles, which offered some protection against enemies and large animals.

Modern hybridization and cultivar development took place mostly in the United States. Caterpillars of the concealer moth Alabonia geoffrella have been found feeding inside dead blackberry shoots. Blackberries grow wild throughout most of Europe. They are an important element in the ecology of many countries, and harvesting the berries is a popular pastime.

Blackberry fruits are red when unripe, leading to an old expression that “blackberries are red when they’re green”. Percentages are roughly approximated using US recommendations for adults. Blackberries contain numerous large seeds that are not always preferred by consumers. The ripe fruit is commonly used in desserts, jams, jelly, wine and liqueurs. It may be mixed with other berries and fruits for pies and crumbles.

Blackberries are also used to produce candy. Worldwide, Mexico is the leading producer of blackberries, with nearly the entire crop being produced for export into the off-season fresh markets in North America and Europe. Numerous cultivars have been selected for commercial and amateur cultivation in Europe and the United States. The most recent cultivars released from this program are the prickle-free cultivars ‘Black Diamond’, ‘Black Pearl’, and ‘Nightfall’ as well as the very early-ripening ‘Obsidian’ and ‘Metolius’. Black Diamond’ is now the leading cultivar being planted in the Pacific Northwest. Some of the other cultivars from this program are ‘Newberry’, ‘Waldo’, ‘Siskiyou’, ‘Black Butte’, ‘Kotata’, ‘Pacific’, and ‘Cascade’. Trailing blackberries are vigorous and crown forming, require a trellis for support, and are less cold hardy than the erect or semi-erect blackberries.

Semi-erect, prickle-free blackberries were first developed at the John Innes Centre in Norwich, UK, and subsequently by the USDA-ARS in Beltsville, Maryland. These are crown forming and very vigorous and need a trellis for support. The University of Arkansas has developed cultivars of erect blackberries. There are prickly and prickle-free cultivars from this program, including ‘Navaho’, ‘Ouachita’, ‘Cherokee’, ‘Apache’, ‘Arapaho’, and ‘Kiowa’.