Common Blackberries here are starting to ripen into delicacies for those of us who don’t mind putting our hands in thorny places and consuming unwashed fruit. The black ones shown here were scrumptious; the dark red ones were still too tart for my taste.
These wild brambles also are known as Allegheny Blackberries, as their scientific name indicates (Rubus allegeniensis). They’re members of the rose family and native to eastern and central North America.
Common Blackberries on the vine can be difficult for the casual observer to differentiate from their cousins, Black Raspberries, which grow in the east as Rubus occidentalis and along the west coast as R. leucodermis.
However, the identification trick is to pluck a berry off its vine and look at its center, where it was attached to the stem. If that center is hollow like a thimble, it’s a raspberry; if that center is “corked” like a jug, it’s a blackberry. Think “blocked berries are blackberries,” and don’t worry about eating the cork.
(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on August 14, 2023.)