Blackberries were perceived by the ancient civilizations as being a wild plant, and historic accounts to get a garden culture of blackberry bushes are few. The Greeks used the blackberry as a remedy for Gout, and the Romans made a tea from the leaves of the blackberry plant to treat many illnesses.
History
John Bartram, the first American explorer, botanist, and author founded the first United States Botanical Garden, in 1728. In the early American colonies, William Bartram in his book, Travels, noted that General Oglethorpe was delivered to the colony of Georgia in 1733 to look into the potential for establishing various temperate and subtropical plants that might”prove invaluable for Georgia farms and orchards.” William Bartram noted further in his book, Travels, he his father, John Bartram, were sent to explore the Southern colonies which included East Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, and Alabama to take a list of plants growing there following the Spanish were expelled from the English. Bartram reported that only outside of Mobile, Alabama, it”grows here five or six feet high, rambling like Brier vines over the fences and shrubs.”
Much of the first modern blackberry variety development was done in America, starting with Judge Logan of California in 1880, and the launch and introduction of this Loganberry.
The Boysenberry was created from a natural choice saved from the abandoned farm of Mr. Rudolf Boysen by USDA member George Darrow, along with Walter Knott, a California fruit and berry enthusiast, whose wife started making berry preserves, which farm later became the most famous Knotts Berry Farm, located near the Walt Disney amusement park in California.
The Youngberry was developed in 1905 at Morgan City, Louisiana; It’s a cross between Luther Burbank’s, Phenomenal Berry, and the Austin-Mayes Dewberry, a trailing blackberry. This berry had excellent qualities, such as flavor and high yields, and it replaced the Loganberry of California following its launch.
Blackberry plants
Blackberry plants, Rubus spp., can’t be truthfully separated accurately by taxonomists into species, since the first species which existed centuries ago have intercrossed themselves from the pure state so entirely, and the organic selections have attained a critical composition and complexity, that can’t be adequately recreated through backcrosses. Blackberry vines and bushes grow in the native country on every continent except Australia and Antarctica. The adaptatation factor to growing blackberries is extensive and the cold hardiness of the blackberry bushes and vines extends to extremely cold lands. The bush form blackberry is much more cold hardy than the trailing blackberry vines, and the assortment of expansion extends to the northwestern portions of america. The trailing blackberry vines are considered by most taxonomists to be: Rubus macropetalus, Rubus loganobaccus, and Rubus ursinus. Erect blackberry bushes which are known as native genera are: Rubus frondosus, Rubus argutus, and Rubus allegheniensis.
Thorns
Thorns exist in native blackberry plants and the thorns stop grazing wildlife, animals and birds from eating the vines before the berry bushes flower and later when blackberries are created. When the blackberries grow and ripen, they aren’t just consumed by wildlife animals and birds, but they’ve been appreciated by people for centuries. Luther Burbank wrote in his book, Fruit Improvement, in 1921 that many hybrids were developed by his efforts along with others to develop thornless blackberry bushes and vines. These thornless creations were initially inferior in quality and taste to the thorny species; however, modern hybridizers of thornless blackberry plants have generated the cultivars:
The most significant new hybridvehicle, the Triple Crown, was released by the USDA. These new thornless blackberry bushes are released for growing in the Middle Atlantic and Pacific Northwest. The Triple Crown is thornless and ripens early to midseason. The fruit is black and firm with a balanced sub-acid sweet flavor and is aromatically pleasing. This berry release is anticipated to be the sensational highlight for anglers everywhere anticipating top quality and rising adaptation. Other, older thornless blackberry releases are: Apache, Hull, Thornfree, Black Satin, Arapaho, Navaho, Chester, and Boysenberry. These blackberries have overcome the sticky issues of their first thornless blackberry hybrids. Commercial thorny blackberry production was stimulated by an introduction of those blackberry published cultivars: Austin-Mayes dewberry, Chicasaw blackberry, Shawnee blackberry, Kiowa blackberry, Choctaw blackberry, Cherokee blackberry, Cheyenne blackberry, Lawton blackberry, along with the Ouchita blackberry that makes you say’ouch’ when you select them. Most of the aforementioned blackberry cultivars are hybrids of a Brazos blackberry and Darrow cross.
Blackberries please the taste of people in addition to that of animals and are considered by many wildlife conservationists to be the main naturalized growing plant that offers food for wildlife.
Wildlife animals and birds eat blackberries as meals or get a thorny protective cover from blackberry bushes or vines that end along fences, animals like quail, doves, turkey, raccoons, opossums, and believe it or not, bears. Perhaps children love eating a fistful of blackberries from wild plants growing in the edge of the woods in summer, then return home with the tell-tale purple stains on their lips, teeth, and clothing. Wild blackberries are delicious when they grow in profusion in the wood’s edge into bushy plants or as trailing vines called dewberries. The delicate balance of a sweet and sour flavor can stimulate the sensations from the new hybrid cultivars towards heights unequaled by other fruits or berries.
Much of the early American blackberry hybridization was performed by Luther Burbank, who introduced his Phenomenal Berry and even a white blackberry, but it was too soft to successfully ship commercially.
Classification
Although most botanists classify blackberry plants into 3 types, Erect, trailing vines, and semi-erect plants, the in-between semi-erect plants, theoretically, could be really an erect plant filled with ripe berries. That semi-erect classification provides little clarification of taxonomic principles.
Final Word
Blackberries fresh from the vines are useful in many foods; they’re yummy in frozen packs, canned, as blackberry wine, ice cream, fresh blackberry juice, blackberry pies, blackberry jelly, blackberry jam, and best of all when eaten as a fresh fruit. Many health benefits come from eating blackberries which are full of anti-oxidants and vitamins along with being a great source of the minerals potassium, phosphorus, iron, and calcium.
