Blackberry
I was rather excited when I realized some blackberry vines were growing on the property! They had not been planted, so they must have been spread by birds eating berries somewhere nearby and pooping the seeds at the edge of my row of Forsythia ("Yellow Bell") bushes.
These flowers bloomed late in April and the berries began forming soon after, slowly growing into bunches of little red druplets. Each little "bump" on the blackberry fruit is called a "druplet." The flowers are quite pretty with a mass of feathery pistils in the center of five white petals.
The edges of the leaves are serrated. When the plants first started coming up, the asymmetry of some of the leaves made me worry that it was poison ivy 😱 but the little thorns on the stalks made me realize otherwise. You can see the asymmetry I mentioned in the leaf on the right in the following photo:
The disappointing thing about the blackberries produced by these vines this year is their small size. I have actually seen many a blueberry that is larger than these blackberries! 😳
The berries on this bush are incredibly small. In fact, I have never seen such small fruit on a blackberry vine in my life. I remember picking blackberries as a child with my aunt that were the size of small grapes! I did some research online about this and the University of Arkansas' Division of Agriculture offers a quite plausible explanation. Regarding the formation of druplets, they begin with this:
Poor druplet formation can arise due to poor pollination of flowers. Pollen is produced in the stamens of the flower and must be moved to the pistils to fertilize the ovules, which will result in the druplet. If the pistil is not fertilized no druplet will form. Blackberry flowers have 100-125 pistils of which 75-85 must be fertilized to get a good sized and shaped berry.
They go on to say that bees, which are important for pollination of blackberries, are not so active if cool, cloudy, or wet weather occurs during the flowering of the vines. It certainly was not cool this year during that time, but we did have a good bit of rain, and that rain might have contributed to the flowers not being properly pollinated.
Despite the berries being very few and very small, they are tasty. I've only gotten three or four berries so far, and maybe another half-dozen will be ready soon. There certainly won't be any blackberry pies or preserves from them. 😕
For anyone interested in a traditional dessert made frequently in the southern US, see my recipe for making a Fruit Cobbler, which can be made from blackberries, blueberries, apples, peaches, or most any other fruit or berry! 😋
SOURCES
1 University of Arkansas, Division of Agriculture:
"What is Going on with my Blackberry Fruit?"
2 Wikipedia: Blackberry
to learn more about either of these projects, please visit: @heyhaveyamet or @theterminal
16-Jul-2020
Wild berries are exciting to find. I know where there are bushes in certain parks but like your experience, most of them are also either small or appear to be ripe but are hard and not tasty.
View or trade
BEER
.Hey @thekittygirl, here is a little bit of
BEER
from @pixresteemer for you. Enjoy it!Learn how to earn FREE BEER each day by staking your
BEER
.Blackberry flower is so similar to apricot and apple flower, a little bit different I think but the berry vine is completely different. I saw blackberry vines before but didn't know it was blackberry.
Today I came to know about it, thanks for sharing...
I got Blackberries growing all over my west coast neighborhood and the local birds definitely spread these plants around. In back lanes, undeveloped and neglected lots, gulleys, ditches, river banks, etc. I get plenty of these berries as most are ignored and go to waste. It hasn't been a hot summer so I don't expect this crop will be as sweet as last year.
The family has never eaten blackberries. It's one of the things they're very interested in that I've told them about the USA. They grew all around my childhood home, and oh how I miss them.
!BEER
View or trade
BEER
.Hey @thekittygirl, here is a little bit of
BEER
from @justinparke for you. Enjoy it!Learn how to earn FREE BEER each day by staking your
BEER
.Love blackberries! Already picked close to a gallon this year and have at least one more round to go. Awesome you found some!
Finding plants being transferred by birds or monkeys in our case, happens quite frequently, nibble here poop there...
Interesting how the fruit has not formed due to lack of pollinating, perhaps once more established it will grow bigger fruit in the coming years, bees will know where to find them.
Excellent photography of pretty little flower and fruits.
!tip
🎁 Hi @thekittygirl! You have received 0.1 HBD tip from @joanstewart!
@joanstewart wrote lately about: Largiloquent, Lithography, Lapidarian, Landing On Letter L Feel free to follow @joanstewart if you like it :)
Sending tips with @tipU - how to guide.
I love all types of berries for my salads and for baking!
The third photo edit... the leaves... so very cool!
Have a beautiful day, my sweet sis @thekittygirl! Take care🥰🌺🤙
!tip
🎁 Hi @thekittygirl! You have received 0.1 HIVE tip from @silversaver888!
@silversaver888 wrote lately about: A Feel Good Challenge: #Alphabethunt Letter M Feel free to follow @silversaver888 if you like it :)
Sending tips with @tipU - how to guide.
GREAT POST!!!
Thank you for publishing it to our community feed!
Compliments of the PHC founder @jaynie...
We have tweeted, upvoted and reblogged it for you.
❤ MWAH!!! ❤
JOIN OUR DISCORD COMMUNITY
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR COMMUNITY FEED
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER
Love all berries we have a big mulberry tree in our back yard and we share them with the birds they can have the ones on top of the tree that we can't get to and they leave the bottom ones for us how kind of the birds. I am glad your berries even small were tasty and love your editing very nice 👍