Blackberries are perennial plants which typically bear biennial stems called canes from the perennial root system.
What distinguishes the blackberry from its raspberry relatives is whether or not the stem picks with the fruit.
When picking a blackberry fruit, the stem does stay with the fruit. With a raspberry, the stem remains on the plant, leaving a hollow core in the raspberry fruit.
The term 'bramble', a word meaning any impenetrable thicket, has traditionally been applied specifically to the blackberry or its products.
In its first year, a new stem, the primocane, grows vigorously to its full length of 3–6 m and in some cases, up to 9 m, arching or trailing along the ground and bearing large leaves with five or seven leaflets; it does not produce any flowers.
In its second year, the cane becomes a floricane and the stem does not grow longer, but the lateral buds break to produce flowering laterals which have smaller leaves with three or five leaflets.
First and second year shoots usually have numerous short curved, very sharp prickles that are often erroneously called thorns.
Unmanaged mature plants form a tangle of dense arching stems, the branches rooting from the node tip on many species when they reach the ground.
Vigorous and growing rapidly in woods, scrub, hillsides, and hedgerows, blackberry shrubs tolerate poor soils, readily colonizing wasteland, ditches, and vacant lots.
The flowers are produced in late spring and early summer on the tips of the flowering laterals. Each flower is about 2–3 cm in diameter with five white or pale pink petals.
Blackberry leaves are food for certain caterpillars and some grazing mammals such as deer who are very fond of the leaves.
When mature, the berries are eaten and their seeds dispersed by several mammals, such as the red fox and the Eurasian badger, as well as by small birds.
Blackberries grow wild throughout most of Europe. They are an important element in the ecology of many countries, and harvesting the berries is a popular pastime.
Cultivated blackberries are notable for their significant contents of dietary fiber, vitamin C, and vitamin K.
A 100 gram serving of raw blackberries supplies 43 calories and 5 grams of dietary fiber or 25% of the recommended Daily Value.
It also contains 25% of your vitamin C and 19% of your vitamin K recommended daily intake.
The soft fruit is popular for use in desserts, jams, seedless jelly, and sometimes wine. It is often mixed with apples for pies and crumbles.
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