Rubus Species, Bramble, Wild Blackberry

For every plant I pull or cut or destroy, I get two more somewhere else in the yard. The thorns are nasty on them and fire ants seems to ...Read Morelike building colonies below them.
However negative this plant may be, I love the fruit. Out of all berries, the wild blackberry is my favorite.
I remember picking these in Northern Wisconsin as a child. My fingers and face would be purple for days and my bucket never held as many as my tummy... We would make muffins, cakes, jams, pancakes... anything you could think of putting berries in would have these.

They tend to be larger and sweeter than domesticated berries. I have also seen one wild blackberry outproduce four domesticated blackberries in a season.
If you love berries and keep them under control these are wonderful plants.
I do suggest bird netting if you don't like to share with our feathered friends.

So I was casually looking through Dave's "Top Thugs" section, feeling generally gratified that others hate the Tree of Heaven and English...Read More Ivy as much as I do, but wait, no Himalayan Blackberry on this list???

Most Top Thugs do have good things going for them: fast growing tree of heaven (I can't help it but trying to think of good things about it turns my stomach) English Ivy makes beautiful evergreen hedges (along with stamping out anything it it's path) and yes, the Himalayan Blackberry does have huge tasty fruit, ok, I'm done being nice.

Along with the above mentioned Top Thugs (Kudzu's also not on the list? Are you kidding?) the Himalayan blackberry should be dug up by the roots at every opportunity. If you, like I, love the taste of blackberries, please, please, please buy a non-invasive cultivar for your yard and join me in the quest agienst this horrid foregn invader!!!

Extremely invasive. The berries taste good, but the animals are usually the first to harvest them. Here in Pensacola, two of the most inv...Read Moreasive plants are blackberry and greenbrier. You can find these two plants EVERYWHERE. Both of them have thorns. And fences are their favorite place to climb.

Common along fence rows and fallow ground, the wild blackberry is seen all across our area. Blooming around the first week of May and the...Read More first fruits ripen about the first week of July.

At one time, it was a common sight along backroads and over grown farms, but urban development has made this a more unusual plant than it used to be.

It will never be in danger of extinction because birds, who love the fruits, will rapidly replinish the plants.

The fruits are tasty and quite edible for humans, and although a bit more seedy than their tame cousins, the taste is much better.

U.S. FEDERALLY LISTED NOXIOUS WEED.
Not allowed for import to the US and not allowed in any interstate or intrastate transportati...Read Moreon without a specific permit from USDA APHIS PPQ (Plant Protection and Quarantine).
No one should be selling/growing this plant in the U.S.

This is the first plant to appear in fields and roads allowed to grow wild in the Catskills. It is very invasive. It is also a bear magne...Read Moret. I live on the mountain where they dump the nuisance bears (no one lives here, the authorities think!) and a crop of blackberries will draw a bear faster than anything else. I actively remove any plants within the fence around my yard to discourage bears from breaching the fence. The plants have nasty prickers and picking the berries is best done in thick clothing. However, there's nothing better than blackberry cobbler. I pick that crop along an abandonned logging road nearby, with my houndog accompanying me to keep the bears at bay.

I found this plant growing today while walking though a vacant lot in town. It is not even visible to the eyes out near the curb; it's wa...Read Morey in the back where I went to explore. I'm taking some cuttings and fruit tomorrow; before someone comes along at whacks it down, thinking it's something that's poisonous. I have a container and old trellising wire that is just perfect for it.

Wild blackberries grow prolificly in the inland of N. California as well...we enjoyed blackberry crisp last night and blackberry waffles ...Read Morethis morning! And we still have about a ton to pick! I know they're invasive, but they're managable with some effort!

Living in Northern California, you see blackberries everywhere! I admit that the berries are good, but these vines are simply nasty. We...Read More have two different varieties growing on the borders of our yard, and beneath the trees, and in the lawn.... *sigh*

The other drawback to blackberry bushes, is that poison oak LOVES to grow along with them. So, you trim the blackberries, you get poison oak. I've cut some of the bushes back, but quite often, this causes the remaining section to grow back much stronger. The only plus, is if you cut a bush back severely, the berries will be huge and juicy!

Thorny, climbing shrub from Europe and often found in hedgerows in all habitats. Has large, mid green, palmate with 5 toothed, coarse le...Read Moreaflets. Thorns adorn the biennial stems which arch and root where ever they touch the ground. Bears white or sometimes pink, 5 petalled, wild rose like flowers with lots of stamens in the centre. Fruit is black, shiny, with many small berries which make up the whole fruit. The fruit is edible and many wild birds and mammals depend on them for Autumn food.

Flowers May - September.

While undesirable in a nice neat garden, they have a use as a hedge plant and many Europeans recall lazy late summer days blackberry picking along the hedgerows. The berries will dye your fingers a lurid pink and even dogs enjoy the berries. Its an invaluable shrub for wild life and blackberry and apple pie.

Other uses may surpise you, the roots can be used as an orange dye.

The fruit is high in vitamin C.

Infused leaves and young shoots can be used as a tonic in bath water to revive tired skin.

Leaves can also be decocted as a gargle for sore throats or made into a poultice for skin ulcers.