Last week a friend stopped by our home to give me a quart of freshly picked blackberries. I had a flashback to when our children were young and we spent many days in July and August picking blueberries, black and red raspberries and black berries.

Blackberries and raspberries, which are often called briars or brambles, are members of the rosaceae family and closely related to the strawberry. Our word bramble comes from the prehistoric Germanic word broemoz, which in old English was changed to bremel and eventually to bramble. In old English, the word briars were used for any prickly bush, including particularly the brambles.

Blackberries are a far more complex group than the red raspberries, however the distinction between the two revolves around the fruit. All bramble fruits are aggregate fruits, meaning they are formed by several smaller fruits called drupelets.

The drupelets are all attached to a structure called the receptacle, which is the fibrous central core of the berry. In raspberries, the receptacle remains with the plant when the fruit is picked, creating a hollow appearance. In blackberries, the drupelets remain attached when the fruit is picked, giving blackberries a bit more crunch than raspberries.

Raspberry drupelets are hairy and adhere to one another; whereas blackberry drupelets are hairless and smooth. The thorns of a raspberry are finer and more flexible than those of the blackberry. Black raspberries have more prominent thorns than red raspberries. Also, red raspberries are unique in that there is some fall fruiting, and you may get a second picking from the same plant. Although these fall berries will not be as big or plentiful as the August berries

For the past 200 years, blackberries have been used in Europe for eating and medicinal purposes. The plants have been used as a hedge to keep cattle in and people out as well. Blackberry juice was used to treat infections of the mouth and eyes. After peeling and boiling the roots and stems, the liquid was taken to arrest vomiting and as a remedy for dysentery.

A legend handed down in England warned the people to never eat blackberries after early autumn. The reason given was that when the devil was kicked out of heaven on Oct. 11, he landed on a thorny blackberry bush, cussing and screaming. On the same day every year, he avenges himself by spitting on the berries, making them inedible.

In the early years of our country, blackberries growing in the woods were an important part of the food supply for the colonists, who had been familiar with the blackberries back in Europe. Native Americans cultivated the blackberry and used controlled fires to create good habitat for the plant. Today, blackberries are overlooked by most people except for the avid berry pickers.

Blackberries and raspberries can be either semi-erect or trailing with generally thorny plants producing renewal shoots from the ground. The plants are perennial, composed of biennial canes, which overlap in age. Individual canes grow for one year, initiate flower buds in late summer, fruit the following summer and then die. During the first year, canes are called primo canes, and after the second-year canes flower, they are called floricans.

Our common blackberry’s Latin name is rubus allegheniensis which is Latin for bramble, briar, and prickly shrub. The plants grow from two to eight feet in height with very thorny, erect or arching purplish canes. The berries, which ripen during the hottest part of the summer, go from green to red and then to black when ripe.

The completely ripe berries come off the cane with just the slightest tug; while partially ripe berries need some force to remove them, and of course, they are bitter.

The following are the lyrics to the song of “Blackberry Queen” by Cicely Mary Baker.

“My berries clusters are black and thick for rich and poor alike to pick;

I’ll tear your dress, and cling, and tease, and scratch your hand and arms and knees;

I’ll stain your fingers and your face, and then I’ll laugh at your disgrace;

But when the bramble jellies are made, you’ll find your trouble well repaid.”

Bill Bower is a retired Pennsylvania Game Commission Wildlife Officer. Read his blog and listen to his podcasts on the outdoors at www.onemaningreen.com.