Blackberry definitions and example sentences on Wordnik

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Definitions (13)

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noun Any of various shrubs of the genus Rubus, having usually prickly stems, compound leaves, and an aggregate fruit of small drupelets.
noun The fruit of these plants, usually black, purple, or deep red.

Century Dictionary (7)

The fruit of those species of Rubus in which the receptacle becomes juicy and falls off with the drupelets, in distinction from the raspberry. The principal European species is R. fruticosus. In the United States there are several kinds, as the high blackberry, R. villosus, some varieties of which are extensively cultivated; the low blackberry or dewberry, R. Canadensis; the bush-blackberry, R. trivialis, of the Southern States; the running swamp-blackberry, R. hispidus; and the sand-blackberry, R. cuneifolius. In Scotland generally called bramble, and in the west of Scotland black-boyd or black-bide.
In some parts of England, the black currant, Ribes nigrum.
In North America the term blackberry is applied to those edible-fruited members of the genus Rubus in which the drupelets and torus (‘core’) adhere into one mass and in this form separate from the plant The blackberry is now more extensively cultivated in the United States than elsewhere in the world. These fruits are the ameliorated products of native species, and the evolution has taken place within about half a century. The species of blackberry are much confused, but as now understood the forms cultivated for their fruit-have been derived chiefly from Rubus nigrobaccus, the common wild blackberry. Some have come from R. argutus, and a very few from R. cuneifolius. The dewberries (trailing blackberries) are derived from R. procumbens (R. villosus of Aiton) and R. invisus. A few blackberries are hybrids between blackberries and dewberries. The blackberries are of very easy culture. If the ground is fertile and the plants free from disease, the crop is very heavy; and as this crop matures in midsummer, it is important that the soil be retentive of moisture. As in related plants, the fruit arises from canes that grew the previous year, and these canes usually bear but once and never more than one good crop; therefore the old canes are wholly removed after they have borne, and the growing canes take their places. This removal of the old canes not only conserves the energy of the plant and removes objectionable brush, but also serves to keep disease in check. The chief diseases are the anthracnose and the red rust. The former causes discolorations and spots on the canes. It can be kept in check to some extent by thorough and repeated spraying with Bordeaux mixture; but the best procedure is to keep it out by timely removal of affected canes and by changing the patch to a new area every few years. The red rnst, yellow rust, or yellows is due to a fungus that affects the entire plant, but fruits on the under side of the leaves and is therefore often mistaken for a foliage disease. The only remedy is to uproot the plant and burn it. The varieties of blackberry are many, and new kinds are constantly taking the place of the old. Probably the Snyder is now the most wide-spread, although not the best in quality.

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The Devil spits on blackberries on the 11 th—don't ask me why—and if you eat them after that, the blackberry is so insulted that you will suffer grave misfortune. — Analog April, 1971
Now that voting by text message on a cell phone or blackberry is an option, all somebody has to do is sit in front of their television, grab a beverage, and get a good thumb workout. — MVN
So whoever said the iPhone wont loose service like the blackberry is full of it. iPhone is walking that same path. — MacDailyNews
Unlike the blackberry, the fruit of the raspberry is easily separated from the receptacle. — Article Source
He's been busy helping to clean up the mess, and his blackberry was about to explode on Sunday evening, but otherwise things are normal. — 11D

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blackberry

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