Many Varieties Of Berry Fruits

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32037, 11 July 1969, Page 6

Many Varieties Of Berry Fruits

The raspberry is well known but perhaps it is less well known that there are over four hundred species of the Rubus genera to which it belongs as a member of the Rosaceae family. There are quite a number of ornamental brambles included which are noted for their foliage and stem as well as flowers and fruits.

One example is the Japanese winebetTy, Rubus phoenicolasius, which bears pink flowers which are followed by small round sub-acid flavoured orange-red berries. These are borne on stems which bristle with red hairs. It is a hardy plant and bears prolifically. Another ornamental one, biflorus, comes from the Himalayas and it is noted for the white waxy nature of its stems which stand out over the winter months when it is without its three to five foliolate leaves; it has small white flowers and yellow berries.

From the strictly dessert and culinary angle there are orange, red, black and white varieties of raspberries; dewberries (more well known in the States) and of course blackberries of which there are now a number of excellent large-berried cultivated forms. These three species have provided the nucleus of many outstanding hybrids, some of which are described here.

The loganberry is thought to have one definite parent, a variety at dewberry but doubt exists on the other one The fruit is long, reddishpurple with a pleasant acid flavour, and is ideal for canning, cooking and preserving while also enjoyed as a dessert fruit

I The boysenberry is now bei ginning to become very popu- , lar and is a loganberry-wild ■ bramble cross. When ripe it . assumes an almost black i colour, and as such has a variety of uses. The laxtonberry is a rasp-berry-loganberry cross which bears bright red raspberrylike fruit It is inclined to be self sterile and is best grown in conjunction with other berries of its kind. The mammothberry is a cross between a blackberry and dewberry, often being referred to as black loganberry. It is a good cropper with blackberry-like, very large cylindrical fruit which, when bottled, have a mild blackberry flavour. The phenomenalberry is often regarded as indistinguishable from the previously mentioned berry, but it is slightly larger and a little later in ripening. The youngberry is a cross

between the phenomenalberry and Mayes dewberry. It forms a vigorous plant bearing very large, almost black fruit which have proved particularly good for canning. There is also a thornless variety. The King’s Acre berry is an early fruiting variety. Its fruit is large, long and black in colour, with a blackberry flavour. It is used for cooking and eating raw. To round off this list mention is made of the Worcester berry which perhaps should not really be included here at all because it is regarded as a hybrid gooseberry. It is the result of a cross between a black currant and a gooseberry. The plant resembles a gooseberry bush so the fruit is large, purplish-bluish, somewhat like a currant, hangs in similar truss-like fashion and has a slight similarity of flavour. It is hardy and said to be a prolific cropper.