Hedgerow Medicine

Blackberry or bramble (Rubus fruticosus agg.) is the king of weeds, whose tasty berries tempt us to put up with its rampant ways. Going brambling is one of the few remaining communal or family foraging activities that draw us into the wild.

In Eat your Weeds! we suggest no fewer than 19 survival attributes that make blackberry an unstoppable weed. Here are three. Blackberry’s backward-pointing spines help the shoots force a way through competing foliage but, as we all know, cannot be withdrawn without tearing your skin. The shoots themselves grow rapidly and put down new roots when they hit land. The ripe fruit is sweet and ‘pippy’, with sturdy seeds that pass through the stomach unharmed, whether of a bird, a wild animal or your own.

Blackberry also has time-honoured medicinal properties, with a focus on its astringency. This refers to the way the plant contracts and dries our tissues, which we may recognise from eating sour things that make our mouth pucker. Herbalists value astringency for strengthening the gums, for treating mouth ulcers and cystitis, and easing diarrhoea. These qualities were known to the ancient Greeks, and we too can benefit from them by boiling up some blackberry leaf tea.

This tea can also be used externally as a hair rinse or as a lotion for easing sunburn and minor burns. See Hedgerow MedicineBackyard Medicine, p35 for more blackberry herbal medicine recipes.