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Dewberry

Edible Edible Autumn Autumn Summer Summer

Looking very like a slightly over-ripe blackberry this plant is easily overlooked as just another bramble. The waxy coating on the berries gives them their name can also make them look mouldy. Closer inspection and tasting will reveal that their are perfectly ripe although often not quite as sweet as blackberries and having fewer ‘drupelets’ – the individual blobs that make up the fruit. The plants themselves are usually smaller and less vigorous  

Hedgerow Type
Common Names Dewberry
Scientific Name Rubus caesius
Season Start
Season End
Please note that each and every hedgerow item you come across may vary in appearance to these photos.

Leaves

Three leaves at the end of each stem at 90 degrees to each other.

Flowers

Large for a blackberry, white, 5 petalled flowers from June onwards.

Fruit

Black with a pale waxy coating giving the appearence of pale grey. Number of ‘drupelets’ much less than standard blackberry and larger, making the fruit look deformed.

Stem

Stems with a few small prickles rooting at their tips. Never large arching heavily thorned stems.

Habitat

Disturbed ground, woodland rides, scrub, sand-dunes.

Other Facts

The fruit of the dewberry in the UK are not as easily gathered as their larger commoner blackberry cousins and thus not as sought after, but still worthwhile. In the USA however there are a wider variety of ‘dewberries’, so much so that they were commercially bred and grown around Cameron in North Carolina.

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