Mary Allen
Blackberries on the bramble bush. Some of the fruits are already dark, so you can already pick them.
The blackberry is a fruit that we also count among the berries. The blackberries at our markets come from large nurseries. But they also grow wild. After flowering, the blackberries are green, then they turn red, and finally black. Only then are they ripe.
You eat blackberries just like that, in a dessert or as jam. The leaves of the plant can be dried and used as tea. In antiquity and later it was believed that the blackberry was a medicinal plant. They were taken when the stomach hurt, or when the bladder or kidneys were ailing.
How do blackberries grow?
The whole plant is also called blackberries. They originally come from Eastern Europe, but can also be found in North America and Asia. They grow wild but are also cultivated in nurseries. In Europe alone there are more than 2000 species of blackberries. The blackberry plants have thorns, which is why the fruits are also called “dewberries” in some places.
Blackberries grow as individual shoots from the ground. The tendrils can grow several meters long. They form an impenetrable thicket on the ground. But they also like to climb up other plants and hold on to them with their spines. They are bent toward the ground and actually form barbs. In addition, side shoots grow on the tendrils like the branches on a tree.
Blackberries lose their leaves in winter. New shoots grow in spring. It forms white-pink flowers. The fruits grow from these flowers and can be harvested from July to October. New blackberry roots can grow from the seeds.
But blackberries have an even simpler way of propagation: if a shoot hangs down and touches the ground there, new roots form, and from them a new blackberry plant. In the forests and at the edges of the forest, they can therefore take over more and more areas. You have to cut them back when you have just planted new trees. Also in the garden, you have to be very careful that blackberries do not overgrow everything.