Tuesday, June 8, 2010


Himalayan blackberry
Rubus armeniacus

Rosaceae

This blackberry seems to have an identity issue; it is also known as R. discolor and R. procerus. I don't understand the need to change scientific names like this. The flowers are very pretty.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

We have a huge patch at the back of our yard; originally intertwined with grapes, English ivy and pyrecantha! UGH. I paid someone to hack it back a couple of yrs ago and since then work on keeping them as out of each others way as possible, and keeping the ivy, pyrecantha and berries from climbing the trees. But yeah... the flowers ARE beautiful.... and the berries are yummy. Another one of those things, like strawberries and snap peas, that rarely make it into the house before getting eaten.

Katie (Nature ID) said...

Hi Janet. I bet the berries get nice and sweet up where you are with the heat and sun. If I ever have a garden of my own, I won't have things with thorns. When I was raising walking sticks, cutting thorny blackberry stems to feed them was a pain.

Anonymous said...

OW! I didn't know one could raise walking sticks. I still recall my first encounter w/ one as a bug-phobic child. I was walking alone in my Brooklyn neighborhood and spotted this weird moving twig on an apt. house lawn. I had read about them (being a kid who devoured nature books) and plopped down to watch it, rapt, for a very long time. First bug I was ever totally unafraid of and totally enjoyed.