Fruit

Blackberry

Rubus sect. Rubus (m.in. Rubus plicatus, Rubus caesius) · bramble, dewberry · Polish: Jeżyna

Edible

Photo: AnemoneProjectors - Peter O'Connor (talk; Flickr) / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0

How to identify it

Stems armed with prickles.
Black aggregate fruit (with a bluish bloom in dewberry); when picked, the receptacle stays inside the fruit (unlike the raspberry).
Dewberry has waxy-bloomed stems with straight prickles.

Where it grows

Woodland, woodland edges and scrub, field margins and roadsides; dewberry also in riverside (riparian) woodland. A collective name for several dozen species.

In the kitchen and the home medicine cabinet

Fresh, and for jams, preserves, juices, wine and nalewki (fruit liqueurs); tea is made from young leaves, dried or fermented.

Caution Blackberries can cause cross-allergy with apple. Wash fruit picked low down near the ground. In the forest, pick by hand; picking is prohibited in national parks and nature reserves.