A bramble is any rough, tangled, prickly shrub, usually in the genus ''
Rubus
''Rubus'' is a large and diverse genus of flowering plants in the rose family, Rosaceae, subfamily Rosoideae, with over 1,350 species.
Raspberries, blackberries, and dewberries are common, widely distributed members of the genus. Most of t ...
'', which grows
blackberries,
raspberries, or
dewberries.
"Bramble" is also used to describe other prickly shrubs, such as
roses
A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be ...
(''Rosa'' species).
[ The fruits include blackberries, arctic brambleberries, or raspberries, depending on the species, and are used to make jellies, jams, and preserves.]
In British English
British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Lexico, Oxford Dictionaries, "English language, English as used in Great Britain, as distinct from that used elsewhere". More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in ...
, bramble usually refers to the common blackberry, ''Rubus fruticosus
''Rubus fruticosus'' L. is the ambiguous name of a European blackberry species in the genus '' Rubus'' in the rose family. The name has been interpreted in several ways:
*The species represented by the type specimen of ''Rubus fruticosus'' L ...
''. ''R. fruticosus'' grows abundantly in all parts of the British Isles, and harvesting the fruits in late summer and autumn is often considered a favourite pastime. An especially hardy plant, bramble bushes can also become a nuisance in gardens, sending down strong suckering roots amongst hedges and shrubs and being particularly resilient against pruning. Many consider ''R. fruticosus'' a weed due its tendency to grow in neglected areas and its sharp, tough thorns, which can be hazardous to children and pets.
Description
Bramble bushes have long, thorny, arching shoots and root easily. They send up long, arching canes that typically do not flower or set fruit
In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering.
Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in partic ...
until the second year of growth; some varieties, known as
''everbearing'' or ''primocane bearing'' produce fruit on the tips of first-year canes. Brambles usually have trifoliate or palmately-compound leaves.
Bramble fruits are aggregate fruits. Each small unit is called a drupe
In botany, a drupe (or stone fruit) is an indehiscent fruit in which an outer fleshy part ( exocarp, or skin, and mesocarp, or flesh) surrounds a single shell (the ''pit'', ''stone'', or '' pyrena'') of hardened endocarp with a seed (''kerne ...
let. In some, such as the blackberry
The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by many species in the genus ''Rubus'' in the family Rosaceae, hybrids among these species within the subgenus ''Rubus'', and hybrids between the subgenera ''Rubus'' and ''Idaeobatus''. The taxonomy of ...
, the flower receptacle is elongated and part of the ripe fruit, making the blackberry an ''aggregate-accessory'' fruit.
Etymology
"Bramble" comes from Old English ''bræmbel'', a variant of ''bræmel''. It ultimately descends from Proto-Germanic ''*brēm-'', whence come also English ''broom'', German ', Dutch ' and French '.
Ecology
Most species are important for their conservation and wildlife value in their native range. The flowers attract nectar-feeding butterflies
Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprises t ...
and hoverflies
Hover flies, also called flower flies or syrphid flies, make up the insect family Syrphidae. As their common name suggests, they are often seen hovering or nectaring at flowers; the adults of many species feed mainly on nectar and pollen, whi ...
, and are a particular favourite of '' Volucella pellucens''.
Being a pioneer plant on the verge between a meadow and a forest, blackberries can prove to be a valuable protective nurse crop
Nurse crops are a subtype of nurse plants, facilitating the growth of other species of plants. The term is used primarily in agriculture, but also in forestry. Cover crops are a type of nurse crop.
Agriculture
In agriculture, a nurse crop is ...
for the perennial plants that will replace them.
Brambles are important food plants for the larva
A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle.
Th ...
e of several species of Lepidoptera. The leaves are often used to feed captive stick insects. (The young leaves contain a toxin that can be harmful to many stick insects, but they develop an immunity to it by their third instar
An instar (, from the Latin '' īnstar'', "form", "likeness") is a developmental stage of arthropods, such as insects, between each moult (''ecdysis''), until sexual maturity is reached. Arthropods must shed the exoskeleton in order to grow o ...
.) Many bird
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...
s, such as the common blackbird
The common blackbird (''Turdus merula'') is a species of true thrush. It is also called the Eurasian blackbird (especially in North America, to distinguish it from the unrelated New World blackbirds), or simply the blackbird where this does no ...
, and some mammals will feed on the nutritious fruits in autumn.
Uses
Many species are grown and bred for their fruit. Ornamental species can be grown for flowers (e.g. '' Rubus trilobus''), for their ornamental stems (e.g. '' R. cockburnianus'') and some as ground cover (e.g. '' R. tricolor''). Members of ''Rubus'' tend to have a brittle, porous core and an oily residue along the stalk which makes them ideal to burn, even in damp climates. The thorny varieties are sometimes grown for game cover and occasionally for protection.
Split bramble stems are traditionally used as binding material for straw in production of lip-work basketry
Basket weaving (also basketry or basket making) is the process of weaving or sewing pliable materials into three-dimensional artifacts, such as baskets, mats, mesh bags or even furniture. Craftspeople and artists specialized in making baskets ...
, such as lip-work chairs and bee skeps and sometimes used to protect other fruits such as strawberries.
Control of common blackberry
''R. fruticosus'' is difficult to eradicate once it has become established. Early action by pulling with a gloved hand and digging young seedlings as soon as they are seen will save a lot of hard work later. A thick mulch of chipped bark or compost
Compost is a mixture of ingredients used as plant fertilizer and to improve soil's physical, chemical and biological properties. It is commonly prepared by decomposing plant, food waste, recycling organic materials and manure. The resulting ...
will also make it much easier to pull out recently germinated seeds in the spring. Light but established infestations in friable, workable soils may be removed by cutting back the stems to about above the ground, to leave a handle, and forking out the bramble stump with as much of the root as possible. Anything left below ground may regenerate.
Heavy infestations may make the land completely impenetrable and will require cutting first just to access the stems. The root systems will also be so pervasive that removing them would require digging up the entire area; doing this in woodland areas will cause unacceptable damage to the surface roots of trees and to flowering bulbs and should be avoided. In this case, chemical control using a selective weedkiller such as triclopyr
Triclopyr (3,5,6-trichloro-2-pyridinyloxyacetic acid) is an organic compound in the pyridine group that is used as a systemic foliar herbicide and fungicide.
Uses
Triclopyr is used to control broadleaf weeds while leaving grasses and conife ...
to wet the photosynthesis
Photosynthesis is a process used by plants and other organisms to convert light energy into chemical energy that, through cellular respiration, can later be released to fuel the organism's activities. Some of this chemical energy is stored i ...
ing bramble leaves is very effective if applied in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions. However, a heavily infested area of uncut brambles will require an inordinate amount of poison to wet the leaves; it is far cheaper, and more effective, to cut the area as close to ground level as possible in the spring, clear the debris into piles to reveal the ground surface and to accurately spot spray the shoots that will emerge two to three weeks later as soon as they have a small amount of new foliage. This will kill the plant back into its root system using a small fraction of the poison required to spray whole bushes. The area may first be cleared using a tractor-mounted rotary mower, motorised string trimmer
A string trimmer, also known by the portmanteau strimmer and the trademarks Weedwacker, Weed eater and Whipper Snipper. is a garden tool for cutting grass, small weeds, and groundcover. It uses a whirling monofilament line instead of a bla ...
or with a scythe
A scythe ( ) is an agricultural hand tool for mowing grass or harvesting crops. It is historically used to cut down or reap edible grains, before the process of threshing. The scythe has been largely replaced by horse-drawn and then tr ...
. A short-bladed scythe in good hands can be faster than using a string trimmer, leaves a neater cut close to the ground, avoids collateral damage to other plants that are desirable to keep, and deposits the cut debris aligned in swathe
A swathe (; rhymes with "bathe") or swath (; rhymes with "cloth") is the width of a scythe stroke or a mowing-machine blade, the path of this width made in mowing or the mown grass or grain lying on such a path.
The mower with a scythe moves alo ...
s that are easier to remove and stack. The area must be cut and cleared at some point anyway and it is easier to clear the debris while green and flexible than dead and dry, so clearing when green then spraying a little is more efficient than spraying a lot then clearing when dry.
Triclopyr
Triclopyr (3,5,6-trichloro-2-pyridinyloxyacetic acid) is an organic compound in the pyridine group that is used as a systemic foliar herbicide and fungicide.
Uses
Triclopyr is used to control broadleaf weeds while leaving grasses and conife ...
is highly selective: it only affects actively photosynthesising dicots, leaving grass, and flowering monocots
Monocotyledons (), commonly referred to as monocots, ( Lilianae ''sensu'' Chase & Reveal) are grass and grass-like flowering plants (angiosperms), the seeds of which typically contain only one embryonic leaf, or cotyledon. They constitute one of ...
such as narcissus
Narcissus may refer to:
Biology
* ''Narcissus'' (plant), a genus containing daffodils and others
People
* Narcissus (mythology), Greek mythological character
* Narcissus (wrestler) (2nd century), assassin of the Roman emperor Commodus
* Tiberiu ...
and bluebell bulbs, undamaged. It also breaks down harmlessly in the soil within about six weeks leaving no toxic residuals. Glyphosate
Glyphosate (IUPAC name: ''N''-(phosphonomethyl)glycine) is a broad-spectrum systemic herbicide and crop desiccant. It is an organophosphorus compound, specifically a phosphonate, which acts by inhibiting the plant enzyme 5-enolpyruvylshik ...
is also effective but must be used with much greater care and will damage other woodland plants.
An organic, long-term approach involves utilising the pioneering properties of the plant. The brambles are used to protect young trees from grazers and when the trees grow up, they permanently out-shade the blackberry patches; blackberries cannot abide deep shade.
Cultivation
There are many different systems developed for the commercial culture of blackberries and raspberries. Bramble cultivar
A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture ...
s are separated into several categories based on their growth habit. They are categorised as erect, semi-erect, or trailing.
Plants bearing thorns, brambles, spines, or prickles are often used as a defence against burglary
Burglary, also called breaking and entering and sometimes housebreaking, is the act of entering a building or other areas without permission, with the intention of committing a criminal offence. Usually that offence is theft, robbery or murde ...
, being strategically planted below windows or around the entire perimeter of a property. They also have been used to protect crops and livestock against marauding animals. Examples include hawthorn hedges in Europe, Agave
''Agave'' (; ; ) is a genus of monocots native to the hot and arid regions of the Americas and the Caribbean, although some ''Agave'' species are also native to tropical areas of North America, such as Mexico. The genus is primarily known ...
s in the Americas and in other countries where they have been introduced, Osage Orange in the prairie states of the US, and '' Sansevieria'' in Africa.
Culture
* Androcles, a traditional folktale describing a fugitive slave in ancient Greece who befriended a lion by removing a thorn from its paw.
* The Book of Genesis
The Book of Genesis (from Greek ; Hebrew: בְּרֵאשִׁית ''Bəreʾšīt'', "In hebeginning") is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its first word, ( "In the beginning" ...
recounts the creation of thorns as one of the punishments for the disobedience of Adam and Eve on their expulsion from the Garden of Eden stating, "Thorns also and thistles shall he ground
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...
bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field."
* ''The Maid Freed from the Gallows
"The Maid Freed from the Gallows" is one of many titles of a centuries-old folk song about a condemned maiden pleading for someone to buy her freedom from the executioner. In the collection of ballads compiled by Francis James Child in the late ...
'' (alt. ''The Briery Bush''), a story from the collection '' The Child Ballads'' compares the heroine's plight to being caught in "the briery bush" or "the prickly bush".
* ''Sleeping Beauty
''Sleeping Beauty'' (french: La belle au bois dormant, or ''The Beauty in the Sleeping Forest''; german: Dornröschen, or ''Little Briar Rose''), also titled in English as ''The Sleeping Beauty in the Woods'', is a fairy tale about a princess ...
'', a traditional fairy tale recounting a princess cursed to sleep for a hundred years in a castle protected by impenetrable brambles.[Bottigheimer, Ruth. (2008). "Before ''Contes du temps passe'' (1697): Charles Perrault's ''Griselidis'', ''Souhaits'' and ''Peau''". ''The Romantic Review'', Volume 99, Number 3. pp. 175–189.]
See also
*''Rubus probativus
''Rubus probativus'' is an uncommon North American species of brambles in the rose family. It has been found only in the states of Florida, Georgia, and Alabama
(We dare defend our rights)
, anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama"
, image ...
''
References
{{Reflist
Rubus
Plant common names