Blackberries have no single birthplace. Wild species grow natively across Europe, Asia and the Americas, and people on several continents have eaten them for thousands of years. The blackberry in a given yard or roadside is often not from that place at all. Some of the most common ones today were carried around the world by people, or created by plant breeders within the last 150 years.
How Blackberries Spread Across Europe and Beyond
Blackberries belong to a large plant group often called brambles, thorny shrubs with arching or trailing stems. Europe alone has 748 recognized blackberry species.1PubMed. How just a few makes a lot: Speciation via reticulation and apomixis on example of European brambles (Rubus subgen. Rubus, Rosaceae) Only four of them reproduce the usual way, with seeds from two parents.2PubMed. How just a few makes a lot: Speciation via reticulation and apomixis on example of European brambles (Rubus subgen. Rubus, Rosaceae) Nearly all the rest arose from crosses, or hybrids, between species.3PubMed. How just a few makes a lot: Speciation via reticulation and apomixis on example of European brambles (Rubus subgen. Rubus, Rosaceae) All of Europe’s blackberries trace back to just six ancestor species, two of which no longer exist.4PubMed. How just a few makes a lot: Speciation via reticulation and apomixis on example of European brambles (Rubus subgen. Rubus, Rosaceae)
Many of these crosses make seeds without pollination, so each one copies itself and becomes its own stable type.5PubMed. How just a few makes a lot: Speciation via reticulation and apomixis on example of European brambles (Rubus subgen. Rubus, Rosaceae) That is why experts count hundreds of types where a casual picker sees one. It is also why the name Rubus fruticosus often stands for a whole group rather than one species. Telling species apart usually means examining stem shape, prickle type, leaflet edges and flower structure. Most people just call them all blackberries, which is fine for picking and eating.
Which blackberries grow in which part of north-west Europe depends largely on which ancestors were crossed there long ago.6Journal of Biogeography. Capricious, or tied to history’s apron strings? Floristic regions in north‐west European brambles (<i>Rubus</i>subgenus<i>Rubus</i>, Rosaceae) Three ancestors in particular, including the elm-leaf blackberry, shaped those regional patterns.7Journal of Biogeography. Capricious, or tied to history’s apron strings? Floristic regions in north‐west European brambles (<i>Rubus</i>subgenus<i>Rubus</i>, Rosaceae) Plants inherited their preferences for soil and climate from those ancestors.8Journal of Biogeography. Capricious, or tied to history’s apron strings? Floristic regions in north‐west European brambles (<i>Rubus</i>subgenus<i>Rubus</i>, Rosaceae)
Blackberries Native to North America
Blackberries are native shrubs in North American forests, woodlands and grassy clearings.9McClung Museum of Natural History & Culture. #PlantoftheMonth: Blackberry, udatanvhi (Rubus spp.) | McClung Museum of Natural History & Culture “Native” means a plant grew in a region before people brought plants in from elsewhere. It is a statement about history, not safety, and both native and introduced berries are fine to eat. They adapt easily to different places, and their tough seeds are spread by birds.10McClung Museum of Natural History & Culture. #PlantoftheMonth: Blackberry, udatanvhi (Rubus spp.) | McClung Museum of Natural History & Culture Tribes including the Cherokee, Chippewa, Menominee and Meskwaki ate local species for thousands of years.11McClung Museum of Natural History & Culture. #PlantoftheMonth: Blackberry, udatanvhi (Rubus spp.) | McClung Museum of Natural History & Culture
In the Pacific Northwest the native species is the trailing or Pacific blackberry, which grows from British Columbia to California and east to Montana.12Washington Native Plant Society. Rubus ursinus It is the only blackberry native to Oregon.13Tualatin Soil and Water Conservation District. Blackberry (Rubus species) Its berries are small, sweet, have fewer seeds and ripen earlier than invasive blackberries.14Tualatin Soil and Water Conservation District. Blackberry (Rubus species) Unusually, male and female flowers grow on separate plants.15Wikipedia. Rubus ursinus Tribes such as the Salish and Nlaka’pamux ate the berries fresh, dried, or in jams, and made tea from the leaves.16Washington Native Plant Society. Rubus ursinus
Telling the native plant from the invasive Himalayan kind comes down to a few clues. The native has slender, thin stems that creep along the ground and often run through other plants rather than standing up on their own. The Himalayan blackberry forms tall, thick, arching canes that pile into dense thickets taller than a person. Native leaves usually have three leaflets, while the Himalayan plant’s leaves often have five on the main stems. Counting leaflets is a useful clue but not proof on its own. Ripening time helps too: a patch fruiting well before others nearby may be native. Checking stems, leaves and ripening together gives a more reliable answer than any single clue.
The Himalayan Blackberry Actually Comes From Armenia
The Himalayan blackberry is native to Armenia and northwestern Iran.17Wikipedia. Rubus armeniacus In the 1880s, California breeder Luther Burbank got its seeds from India and named it the ‘Himalayan Giant.’18Sierra Streams Institute. In The Weeds – Himalayan Blackberry The name stuck, though the plant never came from the Himalayas.19Oregon Humanities. The Nature of the Beast Burbank sold it widely through his mail-order catalog,20Sierra Streams Institute. In The Weeds – Himalayan Blackberry and it spread into the Northwest, where it is now the most common and troublesome blackberry.21Oregon Humanities. The Nature of the Beast
Birds eat the berries and drop the seeds far from gardens, so the plant escaped into ditches, fields and stream banks. Its dense thickets shade and crowd out smaller native plants, including the native trailing blackberry. Most roadside blackberries in the western states are this plant.
Cutting the canes back alone rarely stops it, because the roots and any stems touching soil send up new growth. Local conservation districts or extension offices can advise on removal methods that suit your area.
Where Boysenberries, Loganberries and Marionberries Come From
In 1880 a Santa Cruz judge, James Harvey Logan, crossed a blackberry and raspberry to make the deep red loganberry.22UC Agriculture and Natural Resources. Berry Confusing In the 1930s breeders in Oregon crossed it with other berries to make the olallieberry.23UC Agriculture and Natural Resources. Berry Confusing The olallieberry was crossed again to make the marionberry, named after Marion County, Oregon, and sold since 1956.24UC Agriculture and Natural Resources. Berry Confusing The boysenberry came from Rudolph Boysen’s Anaheim farm and was rescued from a weedy field by Walter Knott in the late 1920s.25UC Agriculture and Natural Resources. Berry Confusing
Many of these crosses have larger berries than wild blackberries, and some are noticeably redder or darker. Loganberries can taste tart and partly like a raspberry. They are grown on farms and in gardens from named varieties, so a bush found in the wild is very unlikely to be a marionberry or boysenberry.
Thorns make picking slow and painful, so thornless plants are easier for farm workers and gardeners. Early thornless blackberries were found in the wild or as odd branches on thorny plants.26Mississippi Fruit and Nut Blog. Why are Some Blackberries Thornless and some Thorny? They were no use for breeding, because their seedlings all had thorns. Thornlessness was only in the outer skin layer, so it did not pass through seeds.27Mississippi Fruit and Nut Blog. Why are Some Blackberries Thornless and some Thorny?
Breeders had to find thornlessness that seeds could carry. Today’s thornless varieties come from other sources, including the elm-leaf blackberry,28Mississippi Fruit and Nut Blog. Why are Some Blackberries Thornless and some Thorny? one of the European ancestors that shaped wild brambles.
When People Started Eating and Growing Blackberries
A woman preserved in a Danish bog about 2,500 years ago had blackberries in her stomach.29Wikipedia. Blackberry Her last meal included millet too.30Eat The Weeds and other things, too. Blackberries, A Forager’s Companion Blackberry roots, leaves and juice were also used in folk remedies for diarrhea, toothache and coughs.31PubMed Central. Rubus fruticosus (blackberry) use as an herbal medicine Those uses are history, not tested treatments.
Blackberries were among the more recent fruits to be farmed, mostly in the late 1800s.32Journal of the American Pomological Society. Blackberry Production and Cultivar Situation in North America Wild berries were so easy to pick that few saw a need to grow them. By 2005 about 20,000 hectares were farmed worldwide, up 45% in ten years.33Acta Horticulturae. Worldwide production of blackberries Mexico had about 2,300 hectares and was growing fast.34Acta Horticulturae. Worldwide production of blackberries
Many berries sold in winter come from Mexico. They are bred varieties grown on farms, not wild blackberries. Growers need some winter cold for good harvests, which limits where blackberries can be farmed in warm regions.
Why Blackberries Are Weeds in Some Countries
Settlers brought blackberries from Britain to Australia in the 1840s for fruit and hedges.35Nature. Illegal fungus release reveals tangled history of Australia’s decadeslong battle with blackberry Animals and people spread them, and by the late 1880s they were a serious farm weed.36Nature. Illegal fungus release reveals tangled history of Australia’s decadeslong battle with blackberry They now cover about 9 million hectares there and rank among Australia’s worst weeds.37Weeds Australia. Blackberry, European Blackberry Thickets can fuel fires and shelter foxes and rabbits.38Weeds Australia. Blackberry, European Blackberry
Where blackberries belong, they feed deer, bears, turkeys, foxes and many birds.39Missouri Department of Conservation. Common Blackberry Their flowers feed many native bees.40Missouri Department of Conservation. Common Blackberry Animals eating the fruit spread the seeds to new spots.41Missouri Department of Conservation. Common Blackberry
A plant moved to a new continent leaves behind many of the insects and diseases that held it in check at home. Few animals eat the thorny stems, so browsing does little to slow thickets down. Stems that arch over and touch the soil can root there, so a single plant keeps extending into new ground.
Identify the kind first, using stems, leaves and ripening time, before deciding whether to remove a patch. A native patch gives wildlife shelter and food, while an invasive one can crowd out other plants.