Common Names: Blackberry
Latin Names: Rubus fruticosus
– technically called Rubus fruticosus species aggregate due to hybrids and
mixtures
Type: Herbaceous
Origin: Native
Description: Plant tends to grow in
brambles or a thicket. The stem can grow up to 30’ long and have prickles /
thorns along them. Leaves are compound with 3, 5 or 7 leaflets. Flower is white
or pale pink. Berry (or aggregate fruit) is black when ripe and differs from a
raspberry in that the stem or core stays with the berry while the core states
on the plant for a raspberry.
Edible: Fruit (black when ripe) can be eaten raw or in jams and pies or can
make a wine. Leaves can be used in a tea (fresh leaves or dry the leaves before
using them as a tea). Root can be cooked. Shoots can be eaten raw or cooked.
Roots can be cooked.
The
berries on my land are not as good as raspberries but still quite good. Berries
ripe in late April to May.
Other uses: Berry, leaves, and stems
can be used as a dye. Medicinal uses include using infused leaves for diarrhea.
The bramble stems can make rope or baskets.
Notes: Lots of these at the edges of the woods and the pond. It grows in a
bramble or thicket or as a single plant growing into the trees along woods. It
is said it takes two years of growth before it produces fruit. The shorter
ground-level plants bloomed early and fruit were edible by early April while
taller plants were mostly in May.
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