North American blackberry

Photo: NiveisVulpes — CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Survives zone 5 through 8

Harvest calendar

Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.

Also called Kittatinny or oldfield blackberry. An abundant fruiter from small, inconspicuous white-pink flowers. In rich soil it can spread aggressively and crowd out neighbouring plants — better sited where it can be contained.

Hardiness

Zone 5–8

Habit

Shrub

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

July–Aug

Mature size

Semi-erect to trailing, canes 2–4 m long when unsupported, about 1.5 m tall

Light

Full sun to part shade

Soil pH

5.5–7.0 (mildly acid to neutral)

Environment

Temperate

Native range

Eastern North America, from Connecticut to North Carolina.

Status

Wild

Years to fruit

2 yrs

Growth speed

Fast — canes make 1–3 m in a season

Spacing

150 cm (59 in) apart — about 2.3 m² (24 sq ft) per plant

Leaf shape

Alternate, palmately three- to five-foliolate, the leaflets coarsely toothed and pale beneath, on stout armed canes.

Root system

A perennial crown and shallow spreading root system in the top 30–40 cm, carrying biennial canes: each cane grows one year, fruits the next, then dies. New shoots come from buds on both the crown and the roots, which is why a bramble returns from root fragments left after digging and why it is so hard to remove once settled.

Fruit description

Black, succulent, globose to cylindrical, 10–20 mm

Propagation

Seed (stratified, sown in a cold frame in early autumn), half-ripe cuttings in midsummer, tip layering in July, or division.

Pollination

Insect-pollinated.

The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.