These familiar plants grow in woodland, hedges and scrub, and thrive in acidic soils.
Brambles, one of their names, are familiar from their fruit, the blackberry: to the eye and to the mouth. Blackberries are rich in anthocyanins, powerful antioxidants they draw their dark
purple color from. An anthocyanin extract present in blackberry juice protects against heart disease.
Eating blackberries in the diet improves motor and cognitive functions. Eating wild blackberries has a protective effect on the brain, thanks to their high polyphenol content.
These phenolic compounds appear to delay the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.
Blackberries are a good source of manganese, a mineral that plays an important role in brain function — a deficiency in manganese has been claimed a possible cause of autism.
Blackberries reduce inflammation in stomach diseases such as ulcers by up to 88%.
According to Greek mythology, blackberry was bred from the blood of the Titans, shed in their war wit the Gods. Dyes from the berries are useful, whether to color yarn purple or to set up an afternoon party of children to play with paper and brush.
These berries are also rich in vitamin C and potassium, both of which help maintain a healthy cardiovascular system.
The young leaves, when tender and their spines still soft, can be chopped up and eaten in salads or mixtures such as fromage blanc with herbs. Bramble leaves and roots are indeed used in phytotherapy to treat diarrhea, angina, gingivitis and venous return problems.
The round seeds are light to dark brown in color. They are 2 to 3 mm long, with irregular, deep punctures. A number of animal species disseminate them: birds, such as doves, blackbirds and woodpigeons ; mammals, such as dogs, foxes, deer, roebucks, bears, weasels, .
Thousands of Rubus cultivars were bred via time- and labor-consuming methods from only a few wild species,
Bramble bushes consist of long, thorny and arching stems and can grow up to two m (7 ft) or more high. Leaves are alternate and palmately compound. Each leaf is divided into three or five serrated, short-stalked, oval leaflets. Leaves are dark green on top and pale beneath. Leaf stalks and mid-ribs are prickly.
Flowers: clusters of white or pink flowers appear from late spring to early summer.
They are 2–3 cm (1 in) in diameter with five petals and many stamens.
The name “bramble” comes from Old English bræmbel, a variant of bræmel. It ultimately descends from Proto-Germanic *brēm-, whence come also English broom, German Brombeere, Dutch braam and French framboise.
Family names also had the same root. I can recall three that, to me, carried a strong meaning. There was Pierre Brambilla (1919-1984), a Tour de France cyclist during the late 1940s. He was a favorite of journalists, his riding resembled no one else’s, it wad disheveled,
hectic and nevertheless reached the top. Geoges Pérec mentions him in Je me souviens (1978).
Then, aged 10, I visited England for the first time. My foster ‘parents’ there — we were very fond of each other — were Austin and Nellie Bramwell. They participated in archery tournaments. They had a shoe store in Southwell, Nottinghamshire (I coined the commercial slogan “Bramwell shoes well in Southwell” which they adopted).
Thirdly, there was my contemporary fellow-chemist and historian of chemistry, Georges Bram, a close personal friend, he died about 2004.
Returning to brambles, this great American, the anthropologist Margaret Mead, entiled
Blackberry Winter: My Earlier Years her autobiography, publised in 1972.