Blackberry (bramble)

Blackberry, or bramble (Rubus fruticosus agg.), is not a single species but a broad European complex of many closely related microspecies of the rose family. It is native to western and northern Europe and readily runs wild; selected clones are grown as a berry crop in other temperate countries. The EPPO Global Database lists it under Rubus fruticosus L. with the common names blackberry, bramble and European blackberry.

For bees its flowers are a nectar source. According to the International Honey Commission, bramble honey matters most in Finland, Norway and Sweden, then in Spain and Portugal, with smaller roles from Albania and Italy to the British Isles and France.

Two protected honeys name it. Miel de Cévennes has a blackberry type that is pale to pale amber, often crystallised, with a fruity smell of stewed fruit and a marked, lingering acidity; blackberry appears there in the chestnut belt from about 400 m. In Belgium, Miel wallon has a bramble honey in which bramble pollen must exceed 45 % of the pollen grains. It is pale to dark straw, with a faint to medium aroma of fruit and slight woodiness, a taste of caramel and red fruit, and an electrical conductivity of 0.20 to 0.50 mS/cm. Its fructose/glucose ratio of 1.05 to 1.40 makes it crystallise slowly, so Walloon beekeepers control the crystallisation.

Why this matters to you: a bramble patch that gardeners treat as a nuisance can be, for the hive, a source strong enough to carry its own name on the jar.