British Columbia: old timer blackberry question (not bramble bush type berries)

Hi all, I am looking for information about black berries I used to pick with my grandmother when I was a child. (over 30 years ago) These black berries used to grow in and along the sides of ditches in Surrey (back when Surrey was more country than city).

The bluey/green with tinges of red vines grew like string with smaller leaves and us kids had to look hard as she drove slow along the roads to see if we could spot the vines. The berries were small (lucky if you found one the size of your thumb nail) and they wern't super sweet, more tart in flavour, however, when she made them into deserts they were the best of memories. Does any one here know the berries I am talking about? and do you know the names of these berries? all i ever knew them as was black berries.

And one last important question... Does anyone know if these berries can still be found in the lower mainland? I have tried to see if I could find any, but to no luck. some one once gave me a pail of these 10 years ago from Maple Ridge area.

thanks for reading this and thanks in advance for any information you might be able to give me. :)

 

This would be Rubus ursinus, native to British Columbia. There is another species of trailing blackberry found here, Rubus laciniatus, introduced from Europe.

You should be able to find this around the lower mainland. This page has a distribution map: http://linnet.geog.ubc.ca/Atlas/Atlas.aspx?sciname=Rubus ursinus

I agree, the flavour is superior to the invasive Rubus armeniacus, but it certainly must have take a long time to harvest enough of these to make a pie.

 

A fourth species is visible from the freeway, on the delta south of Vancouver.

 

Thank you, thank you!!!! Now comes the hard part.... collecting enough to make jellies with if I can find them little rascals. :)

 

Rubus ursinus grows on our property on the Sunshine Coast. Fruiting season has already passed, so I think you will have to wait until next year.

 

Ron, are you talking hwy 99/91 from delta into surrey area? and what type of a berry are you refering? thanks.

eric, you are lucky to have these in your back yard :) i wish to be so gifted. I bet you enjoy them!!!! Yes I will need to go bush walking to see if I can find the vines and write myself notes to go back next year. What time of the year are they in most bloom? thanks

 

Our property is very dry, so very few berries form. I have picked only a few. It seems to me they are in fruit in early summer, but I did not pay that close of attention.

 

KCJ, I see native trailing blackberries on hikes all over the Lower Mainland. They are very common, but you have to look for them because the vines usually hug the ground and are hidden by other vegetation. They are easier to spot when they bloom in late spring or when the new shoots grow across the path you are walking on.

 

thanks guys i will be looking for them in the spring :)

 

Hi, I'm quite a fan of the native blackberry. R.Ursinus and have been growing a good patch for some years.

One thing I wanted to add to the other posts is that there are male and female plants. The males produce no berries or ocassional malformed berries. The only time that you can see the difference is at berry time. Which incidently is a lot earlier than the Himalayan. R. Ursinus can have ripe fruit at the end of June. Because the plants reproduce mainly by runners there can be huge areas of male only plants. They flower as much as the female plants. So if you intend to collect some R.Ursinus you should reseach the berries and mark the vines that are bearing fruit. You probably will not find many berries, but if there are any good berries at all it is a female.

Later on in the fall, collect the tip rooting vines that have grown from the same root as the plant you marked. Those vines will give you some fruit the next year if you get them well rooted. New shoots will come each year.This berry is the absolute favorite of Robins and other birds when they first begin to ripen so most dissapear before they get black which is another reason why R. Ursinus is thought of as a low producer. In fact, properly cared for, They can be great. I'm attaching some pictures to encourage you.

 

Thanks rubusu,

We did find a very productive plant up on the Sunshine Coast this past summer. I'll watch and encourage that plant to see if I can get a good crop of the tasty berries next summer.

 

If you plant some female vines, don't you need at least one male vine for pollination?

 

Good point Vitog.

In my area, (Gulf Islands) there are lots of plants around so there is no need to worry about male pollen. I did a thorough search of the wild plants on my property at berry time one year and found that the males outnumbered the females by at least five to one.

If Rubus Ursinus is hard to find then you are right. Include a male plant. Keep it separate from the berry patch though. Otherwise you will end up not knowing which plants to preserve and which will never bear fruit.

 

>Ron, are you talking hwy 99/91 from delta into surrey area? and what type of a berry are you refering?<

I was talking about the freeway that leads from the US border to Vancouver. After looking around a bit now I think the species is probably this one.

http://www.plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=RUAL