bramble

Rubus fruticosus

• A very familiar, vigorous and thorny scrambling shrub
   
• Flowers are white or pink
   
• Fruit (blackberry) goes from green through-red, to deep purple and finally black when ripe

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Where found

Common in woodland, hedges, scrub and wasteland

It will grow almost anywhere throughout the British Isles.

When to look for

• Flowers: June-July
   
• Ripe fruit: September

Did you know?

• The fruit of the bramble is not a true berry - botanically it is termed an aggregate fruit
  
  
• There are around 400 micro-species of wild blackberry growing in the UK
  
  
• Strong ale brewed from blackberries, malt and hops was popular in the 18th and 19th centuries
  
  
• Blackberries are known to have health benefits for women due to their high levels of phytoestrogens
  
  
• Blackberry pips were found in the stomach contents of a Neolithic man, during an archaeological excavation in Essex in 1911
  
  
• Thorny brambles were used by the ancient Britons the way modern people use barbed wire
  
  
• Gerards Herbal gives a remedy made from blackberry leaves 'for fastening the teeth back in'