Himalayan blackberry

In brief

Rubus armeniacus, Rosaceae.

- Evergreen scrambling shrub
- Introduced. Native to Armenia and northern Iran
- Flowers May to July
- Fruit an aggregate of drupelets, July to September

Where it grows

Creek bottoms, road edges and any ground with water and light. It roots wherever a cane tip touches down, which is how one plant becomes a thicket.

When it blooms

May to July, in white to pale pink flowers.

Seed and fruit

The blackberry, ripening red and then black from July into September.

Here

Photographed on August 30, 2026 with red and ripe fruit on one stalk, which is how the crop comes in: a few at a time over weeks instead of all at once.

The strong new canes carry five leaflets and the fruiting canes carry three, and the leaflets are broad, thick and doubly toothed. The native trailing blackberry is a slighter plant with narrower leaflets, and that one is worth leaving alone.

It was brought to North America as a crop in 1885 and it left the garden. On this land it is a plant to keep out of the trails instead of one to be rid of, because the fruit is worth having.