Brambles (also known as blackberries in parts of the UK) are one of the few, widely collected, wild fruits. Pies and crumbles benefit from their taste and colour, as do wines and jams. Anyone who has engaged in this autumn pastime will have noticed that the fruit vary considerably in size and that the largest are usually to be found in a bright, sunny location. This common observation of the variability of brambles is under-pinned by a piece of information that I came across only recently: namely, that in the UK there are approximately 400 recognised microspecies of bramble and probably considerably more. They each differ by one or all of the following: fruiting time, size, texture and taste. The above photograph shows a woodland bramble seeking out light filtering down through the canopy above. When fruit appears on such plants they only rarely compare with plants growing in brightly lit locations.
photo © T. Boughen Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2
