High-bush Blackberry.Rubus villosus.
Found in roadside thickets in early June.
This large, stout, stalk varies from 2 to 6 feet in height; it branches toward the top, is round, and grooved, and armed with strong recurved thorns; the new shoots are furnished with short, coarse hairs. The color in the old stalks is a vigorous russet-red, while the young growths are green.
The leaf is divided sometimes into 3 leaflets and sometimes into 5, each leaflet being set on a short foot-stem with the end one a little longer than the others; the margins are coarsely toothed, the ribs deeply marked, the texture coarse, and the surface covered with short hairs; the stem and midrib are furnished underneath with small strong prickles. The color is a coarse, warm green. The leaves are placed alternately, with narrow leafy wings at the stalk.
The 5 oblong petals of the flower taper into a narrow claw at the base; the color is pure white; the 5, pointed, light green calyx-parts alternate with the petals; the stamens are many, thread-like, and tipped with dark brown, while the several pistils form a rounding, pale green bunch in the center. The flowers, on their light green stems, form large cone-like clusters on the ends of the stalks.
The old canes are noticeable in winter and early spring for their fine russet-red, as they grow in plantations on the hillsides and along the lanes; this strong red coloring comes out in the autumn leafage, dark and rich though subdued in hue, and is held late in the vigorous fibre of the leaf. The gracefully formed flower blooms in profusion, early, though the fruit is longer than the other Blackberries in maturing; the fruit-clusters add another attractive feature to the plant, which is known as “only a common Bramble.”