I am aware of blackberry bushes as my land is covered with them but I have recently found two trees that are covered with blackberries.
At first I thought that a vine had just grown into a tree but upon further examination I found that the berries were growing from the tree itself.
The leaves of the tree are not consistent with a blackberry bush and I have not noticed the usual white blooms either.
So, is there a blackberry tree and if so, are the berries edible? I did take a small bite of one to see if it tasted like a blackberry, which it did. I noticed no ill effects but if I eat them in mass quantities it would help if they weren’t toxic.
Right now, in mid-May, there are trees in my hometown in Southern Missouri dropping what look like small blackberries all over the place. I’m not clear on all the differences between raspberries, blackberries, mulberries, etc.
According to the URL you cited, these must be fully grown as they are both about 40 feet tall.
I was curious though about the dates they listed for the berries to be fully ripened. These berries appear to be ripe already and have been for about three weeks.
As for location, Birmingham Alabama. If you want them you better bring some help to carry them out, my guess is there is about 200 lbs.(or more) of berries on each tree. (these are huge trees and the branches are nearly touching the ground under the weight).
I caught that as well - but then, it might be climate related. It is early though, so it’s very possible you’ve got something else.
Welllll, that’s a long drive from Denver.
Mulberries though… oh god… I haven’t had them for oh, maybe 19 years. Yum. I guess I haven’t looked around for them real aggressively… 200lbs worth, that’d take care of nostalgia in a hurry.
I would agree with the mulberry as that was my first thought even before reading more than the OP. My aunt had a mulberry tree in her side yard in Dayton, OH. My family moved south to Atlanta and I never saw any mulberries there. I also married a gal from just outside of Birmingham and I know of no mulberry trees around there. I live in Mississippi and we have no mulberry trees. I do remember that my aunts tree was bigger than mentioned above, so maybe someone brought two trees to the south and they flourished. Maybe you could start a whole new industry with **mulberry muffins, mulberry newtons, mulberry pies…
**I’ll stop there before it gets to sound like Forrest Gump.
This is definitely not too early for ripe mulberries. I’ve had them this time of year in Cleveland, and I would imagine that the season would start earlier in Alabama. The trees are also incredibly variable in shape and size, so don’t judge by that: We had two, both mature, and one was short (about 20 feet), branchy, and had a trunk diameter of about 8 inches (perfect climbing tree), while the other was tall (60+ feet), straight, and had a diameter of a few feet. Check the leaf shape-- Mulberry leaves are shaped like mittens.
Yes, they are most certainly edible, and I’m currently envying you. It’s been two years since I had a mulberry, and it just doesn’t feel like summer without them. Just don’t plant one over your driveway, unless you want your car covered with purple bird poop.
I have never seen mulberry trees as productive as they are this season. Atlanta has mulberry trees everywhere, and the branches are drooping with fruit this year. It’s easy to spot the trees even from a distance, because the sidewalks underneath them will be stained purple by the falling berries.
On a possibly-related note, I understand that a bumper crop of peaches is expected this year as well. Good year for fruit trees for some reason.
Which is odd, because we are in the middle of a long drought.
[list]
[li]Your mulberries are most likely Morus nigra, the common black mulberry. Morus rubra, the red mulberry, also abounds. More rare (in the US) is Morus alba, the white mulberry, planted here by colonials hoping to start a silk business. White mulberry is the primary food of the silk moth.[/li]
[li]Most mulberries are dioecious, meaning they have separate male and female plants. The male mulberry makes a handsome, fast growing tree that doesn’t drop that messy fruit all over the grass or sidewalk. Not to mention all the messy stuff that goes right through the birds eating it.[/li]
[li]Fruit eating birds love mulberries and will pass up other cultivated fruits for them. Thus it is often planted as a “side-tracking” crop to keep the birds away from the more valuable stuff.[/li]
[li]Notwithstanding, mulberries are nummy and nutritious and have lots of uses on their own. You’ll never find them sold commercially because of their delicateness; they fall as soon as they are ripe and don’t last very long. Mulberries being sweet and acidic, I have made an excellent wine out of them. They also make great jellies, jams and such.[/li]
To gather them, just spread out a tarp underneath the tree, and use a long-handled hoe to reach up and shake the berries off the branches. (I’ve learned to wear a rain poncho as well!) With a big tree you’ll have a couple five gallon buckets in no time. Singing “Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush” while you do it is optional.
I’m not sure about Alabama, but it would be prudent to be extremely careful if you are planning to mow around the trees. Here in Virginia, it’s difficult to find a mulberry tree that doesn’t have at least one very chubby box turtle hanging around nearby–no kidding, I’ve found many so engorged that they couldn’t pull into their shells any longer.
I recommend you check the area very carefully first. If you find any turtles, you can usually put them in a box in the shade while you’re doing the mowing, then turn them loose again where you found them when you’re done. They won’t run away from their favorite springtime food source.
I spent 10 years wondering about blackberry trees…When I was very young, my babysitter had this wonderful berry tree in her yard. The berries tasted just like black berries, so that’s what I thought until I was 12 or so, and figured out that black berries only grew on bushes. I wondered what they were for a while, even doubting my memories of the berries actually growing on the tree, and then forgot about them for the most part. Finally, I found them in a nursery catologue and I then knew what those wonderful berries were. If only I had internet access when I was 12, I would have found out back then
Blackberries dont grow on trees. They grow on vine-like canes. The canes grow one year, then flower and fruit the next. So, they never grow higher than a shrub. Californian native blackberries grow as trailing vines, but eastern and midwestern types are stiff caned. They also tend to spread underground by runners, so the non-native himalayan types have overrun a lot of the wetter forested areas in California. The leaflets of blackberries spread like a fan (palmate), and feature three leaflets to one leaf. They also tend to be thorny. And, the flowers look something like small strawberry flowers or tiny single roses.
When I was younger, I was taught that a way to distinguish between blackberries and black raspberries was to count the leaflets; five for B-L-A-C-K, three for R-A-S.
A good introduction to the differences between the two plants is found here. But I couldn’t confirm at any other sites the assertion about numbers of leaflets on primocanes v. floricanes.
The California native (Rubus ursinus) generally has three leaflets, but that can vary. They also have small needle like thorns.
The Himalaya (Rubus procerus), which is a serious pest here in California, usually has five leaflets and rather large recurved thorns. The fruit tastes better than the California.
