Blackberry (Rubus fruticosus)

Edibility:Edible Good

Eating notes: The early season fruits tend to be larger and sweeter and therefore better for eating raw. Later season fruit are better used for cooking, jams etc.

This is one wild food that most people have foraged at one time or another, whether as a wayside snack or to add to an apple and blackberry crumble

Height: 100 - 250cm

Leaves: Leaves are divided 3 separate broad leaflets. Leaflets have uneven serrated edges and may have spines on the underside ribs.

Flowers: Flowers 20-30mm across with 5 petals. Colour variable, from white to pink.

Stems: Plants form dense untidy bushes of tough stems with large backward-pointing thorns.

Fruit: The berries are a roughly spherical collection of small drupelets. They ripen from green, through red and finally shiny black when ripe. 

Look-a-likes: Similar to Dewberry which are smaller plants whose fruit have fewer drupelets.