BERRY FRUITS
In non-technical
usage, berry means any small fruit
that can be eaten whole and lacks
objectionable seeds. The bramble fruits,
compound fruits of
genus Rabus (blackberries), are some
of the most popular pseudo-berries.
Blackberry
There are many species and hybrids,
such as dewberry and loganberry.
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The blackberry is a widespread and
well known shrub; a bramble fruit
(genus Rubus, family Rosaceous) growing
to 3 m (10 ft) and producing a soft-bodied
fruit popular for use in desserts,
jams and sometimes wine. Several Rubus
species are also known as blackberry
and since the species are easily hybridize;
there are many cultivars with more
than one species in their ancestry.
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Marionberry is a
berry cross between Chehalem and Olallieberry
blackberries. It is said to "capture
the best attributes of both berries
and also yields an aromatic bouquet
and an intense blackberry flavor Olallieberry
(sometimes spelled Olallieberry) in
turn is a cross between the loganberry
and youngberry.
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The blackberry has
a scrambling habit to dense arching
stems carrying short curved have very
sharp spines, the branches rooting
from the node tip when they reach
the ground. It is a best ways of pervasive,
growing at fast daily rates in woods,
scrub, hillsides and hedgerows, colonizing
the large areas in a relatively short
time. It will tolerate poor soil,
and is an early colonizer of wasteland
and building sites. It has palmate
leaves of three to five leaflets with
flowers of white or pink appearing
from May to August, ripening to a
black or dark purple fruit, the "blackberry".
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The blackberry is also another fruit
of the blackberry plant. In proper
botanical language, it is actually
not a berry at all, but instead an
aggregate
fruit of numerous drupelets.
Raspberry
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The Raspberry or otherwise Red Raspberry,
(Rubus Idaeus) is a plant that produces
a tart, sweet, red composite fruit
(not a true berry) in late summer
or the early autumn. The fruit is
similar to that of blackberry, but
is smaller, softer, and in a different
colour. It grows typically in forest
clearings or fields, particularly
where ever fire or wood-cutting has
produced open space for colonization
by this the opportunistic colonizer
of disturbed soil. As a cultivated
plant, it is very easy to grow and
has a tendency to spread unless cut
back. Raspberry is sometimes eaten
by the larvae of some Lepidoptera
species including Emperor Moth and
Peach Blossom.
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There are two types are commercially
available: the wild-type summer bearing,
that has produces an abundance of
fruit on second-year canes within
a relatively short period in the midsummer,
and double- or "ever"- bearing
plants, which also bear a few of fruit
on first-year canes in the autumn,
as well as the summer crop on the
second-year canes. Raspberries can
be cultivated from USDA plant hardiness
zones 9 to 3.
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A golden Raspberry, which is in pale
yellow, has been selected by horticulturalists.
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The black raspberry, also called a
blackcap, is not the same plant, being
a cultivar (usually) of Rubus occidentals,
a North American species. Several
other non-cultivated Rubus species
are also called raspberries.
Cloudberry
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The cloudberry plant grows in 10-25
cm high. Leaves alternate between
having 5 and 7 soft, hand like lobes
on straight, branchless stalks. After
pollination, white (sometimes reddish-tipped)
flowers form raspberry-sized berries.
Encapsulating between 5 and 25 berries,
each fruit is initially pale red,
ripening into an amber colour in autumn.
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The ripe fruits are golden-yellow,
soft and juicy, and are rich in Vitamin
C. When eaten fresh, cloudberries
have a distinctive tart taste. They
are often made into jams, juices,
tarts or liqueurs. In Finland the
berries are eaten with "Leip?
usto" (a local hard cheese) and
much sugar. In Sweden, they are also
used as an ice cream topping. In Canada,
cloudberries are used to flavor a
special beer. Canadians also use them
for jam, but not on the same large
scale as Scandinavians.
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Due to its high Vitamin C content,
the berry is valued both by Nordic
seafarers and by American Inuit as
protection against scurvy. Its high
benzoic acid content acts as an inbuilt
natural preservative.
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In ancient Scandinavian herbal medicine,
the leaves of cloudberry were used
as tea to cure urinary tract infections.
Cloudberry is used as a food plant
by the larvae of some Lepidoptera
species including Emperor Moth.
Wineberry
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The wine berry (Rubus phoenicolasius),
is a type of raspberry, and grows
wild in the eastern part of the United
States. The heart-shaped leaves grow
in the groups of three and are white
underneath. The canes have fine, red
thorns, which appear much like red
hair. The calyx (covering the fruit
until it is ripe) is also red and
hairy. The delicate fruits are slightly
tart and ripen to a deep red in late
June to early July.
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New plants are formed from the tips
of existing canes touching the ground.
They enjoy moist soil and grow near
and within wooded areas. They are
considered invasive in some areas.
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They are also called Wine raspberries
and Japanese Wineberry. Despite the
name, they are no more or less suited
for winemaking. Wineberry is also
a tree endemic to New Zealand.
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The true berries are dominated by
the family Ericaceae, many of which
are hardy in the subarctic.
Bilberry
or Whortleberry
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Bilberry is a name given to several
species of low-growing shrubs in the
genus Vaccinium (family Ericaceae)
that bear tasty fruits. The species
most often referred to is Vaccinium
myrtillus L., also known as blaeberry,
whortleberry, whinberry, myrtle blueberry,
and probably other names regionally.
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Bilberries are rarely cultivated but
fruits are sometimes collected from
wild plants growing on public lands,
notably in Scandinavia and Poland.
Vaccinium myrtillus fruit is called
bl?r in Swedish and mustikka in Finnish;
Vaccinium uliginosum fruit is odon
in Swedish and juolukka in Finnish.
The fruits are eaten fresh, or are
usually made into jams, juices or
pies. They have therapeutic uses in
herbal medicine.
Blueberry
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Blueberry refers to some plants of
the genus Vaccinium, which also includes
cranberries, bilberries (also called
blueberry), and many wild shrubs producing
edible, round, blue berries (botanically
false berries) with flared "crowns"
at the end. The fruit are first white,
then reddish-purple, and turn blue
on ripening; the fruit are also called
blueberries, and have a sweet taste.
Blueberries are used in jellies, jams,
pies, and many other snacks and delicacies.
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Blueberries are both cultivated and
picked wild. In North America, the
most common cultivated species is
V. corymbosum, the Northern Highbush
Blueberry. Hybrids of this with other
Vaccinium species adapted to southern
US climates are known collectively
as Southern Highbush Blueberries.
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Wild blueberries, smaller and much
more expensive than cultivated ones,
are prized for their intense flavour
and colour. The Lowbush Blueberry,
V. angustifolium, is found from Newfoundland
westward and southward to Michigan
and West Virginia. In some areas it
produces natural blueberry barrens,
where it is practically the only species
covering large areas. Several First
Nations communities in Ontario are
involved in harvesting
wild blueberries.
Huckleberry
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Huckleberry is a name used in North
America for several plants in two
closely related genera in the family
Ericaceae, Gaylussacia and Vaccinium.While
some Vaccinium species, such as the
Red Huckleberry, are always called
huckleberries, other species may be
called blueberries or huckleberries
depending upon local custom. Similar
Vaccinium species in Europe are called
bilberries.
Other
Berries Not In The Rosaceae or Ericaceae
Barberry
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Berberis is a genus of about 450-500
species of deciduous and evergreen
shrubs from 1-5 m tall with thorny
shoots, native to the temperate and
subtropical regions of Europe, Asia,
Africa, North America and South America.
They are closely related to the genus
Mahonia, which is included within
Berberis by some botanists. Many are
known by the vernacular name barberry.
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The genus is characterised by dimorphic
shoots, with long shoots which form
the structure of the plant, and short
shoots only 1-2 mm long. The leaves
on long shoots are non-photosynthetic,
developed into three-spined thorns
3-30 mm long; the bud in the axil
of each thorn-leaf then develops a
short shoot with several normal, photosynthetic
leaves. These leaves are 1-10 cm long,
simple, and either entire, or with
spiny margins. Only on young seedlings
do leaves develop on the long shoots,
with the adult foliage style developing
after the young plant is 1-2 years
old.
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The deciduous species (e.g. Berberis
thunbergii, B. vulgaris) are noted
for good autumn colour, the leaves
turning pink or red before falling.
In some evergreen species from China
(e.g. B. candidula, B. verruculosa),
the leaves are brilliant white beneath,
making them particularly attractive.
Gooseberry
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The gooseberry is a well-known fruit-bush.
Closely related species are found
in northern and central Europe (Ribes
grossularia) and in North America
(Ribes hirtellum).
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The gooseberries are usually placed
in genus Ribes, along with the closely
related blackcurrants, redcurrants
etc. A few taxonomists place the gooseberries
in a separate genus, Grossularia,
but since gooseberry-blackcurrant
hybrids (e.g. the Jostaberry) can
be cultivated, this seems inappropriate.
However the gooseberries differ somewhat
from the currants, chiefly in their
spinous stems, and in their flowers
growing on short footstalks, solitary,
or two or three together, instead
of in racemes.
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The first part of the word has been
usually treated as an etymological
corruption either of the Dutch word
Kruisbezie or the allied German Krausbeere,
or of the earlier forms of the French
groseille. The New English Dictionary
takes the obvious derivation from
goose and berry as probable; the grounds
on which plants and fruits have received
names associating them with animals
are so commonly inexplicable, that
the want of appropriateness in the
meaning is enough for those authors
to assume that the word is an etymological
corruption. Alternatively the word
has been connected to the Middle High
German krus (curl, crisped), latinized
as grossularia.
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The wild gooseberry is a small, straggling
bush, nearly resembling the cultivated
plant, the branches being thickly
set with sharp spines, standing out
singly or in diverging tufts of two
or three from the bases of the short
spurs or lateral leaf shoots, on which
the bell-shaped flowers are produced,
singly or in pairs, from the groups
of rounded, deeply-crenated 3 or 5
lobed leaves.
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The fruit is smaller than in the garden
kinds, but is often of good flavor;
it is generally hairy, but in one
variety smooth, constituting the R.
uva-crispa of writers; the colour
is usually green, but plants are occasionally
met with having deep purple berries.
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The gooseberry is indigenous in Europe
and western Asia, growing naturally
in alpine thickets and rocky woods
in the lower country, from France
eastward, perhaps as far as the Himalaya.
In Britain it is often found in copses
and hedgerows and about old ruins,
but has been so long a plant of cultivation
that it is difficult to decide upon
its claim to a place in the native
flora of the island. Common as it
is now on some of the lower slopes
of the Alps of Piedmont and Savoy,
it is uncertain whether the Romans
were acquainted with the gooseberry,
though it may possibly be alluded
to in a vague passage of Pliny:The
hot summers of Italy, in ancient times
as at present, would be unfavorable
to its cultivation. Abundant in Germany
and France, it does not appear to
have been much grown there in the
middle ages, though the wild fruit
was held in some esteem medicinally
for the cooling properties of its
acid juice in fevers; while the old
English name, Fea-berry, still surviving
in some provincial dialects, indicates
that it was similarly valued in Britain,
where it was planted in gardens at
a comparatively early period.
Nannyberry
or sheepberry
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Nannyberry (Viburnum lentago) is a
large shrub or small tree native to
the north-eastern United States and
southern Canada from New Brunswick
south to New York and west to the
Dakotas. The Nannyberry is also called
Sweet viburnum or Sheepberry.
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Like all viburnums, the leaf of the
Nannyberry is oppositely arranged
on the twig, it is oval, 3.5 inches
long, finely serrate, with a winged
petiole. The flowers are small, whitish
and arranged in large round clusters.
The fruit is a small round blue-black
drupe, about 3/8 of an inch on a reddish
stem. The fruit is sweet and edible.
The bark of the Nannyberry is grayish-brown,
and broken into small scales. Twigs
of the Nannyberry are smooth, tough,
flexible and produce an offensive
odour when crushed or bruised.
Mulberry
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Both for fruit and ornament the mulberry
should be more generally planted.
Even if the fruit is not to the taste,
the tree is naturally open-centered
and round-headed, and is an interesting
subject; some of the varieties have
finely cut leaves. The fruits are
in great demand by the birds, and
after they begin to ripen the strawberry
beds and cherry trees are freer from
robins and other fruit-eating birds.
For this reason alone they are a valuable
tree for the fruit-grower. Trees may
be purchased cheaper than one can
propagate them.
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Mulberry refers both to the mulberry
tree and to the fruit of that tree.
It also refers to the closely related
Paper Mulberry Broussonetia papyrifera.
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The mulberries are small to medium-sized
trees native to warm temperate areas
of Asia and North America. They are
fast-growing when young, but soon
become slow-growing and rarely exceed
10-15 m tall. The leaves are alternately
arranged, simple, often lobed, more
often lobed on juvenile shoots than
on mature trees, and toothed on the
margin. The fruit is a multiple fruit,
2-3 cm long, red ripening dark purple.
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The fruit is edible
fruit and is widely used
in some places. The fruit of the Black
Mulberry, native to southwest Asia,
and the Red Mulberry, native to eastern
North America, have the best flavour.
The fruit of the White Mulberry, an
east Asian species which is extensively
naturalized in urban regions of eastern
North America is insipid in flavour.
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