ACQUIZHEN

Blackberry – Rubus fructicosus

Blackberry (Rubus fructicosus) seeds have been found in the remains of Neolithic man, which gives some indication of how long humans have eaten these fruits. As well as its dark purple fruits and young shoots being consumed as a food it is a plant which has become woven into the fabric of culture with many tale and pieces of folklore attached to it. This plant has even become a verb as every autumn people head off “blackberrying” to harvest its fruits. In one telling of the love story of Tristan and Isolde a strand of her hair is compared to the intensely coloured beauty of a Blackberry stem in winter. Anyone who has picked their own Blackberries from the wild will be acquainted with the hooked thorns on the stems and leaves which shield the plants bounty. It is only in winter when the stems are bare and coolly lit by the winter sun that you appreciated their arching deeply purple-red beauty, vibrant against the dull background of dormant land.

Superficially all Blackberry bushes look as if they are the same plant. There are in fact at least 400 microspecies of Blackberry in the UK alone. Perhaps this diversity is one of the characteristics which make the species so resilient and able to thrive in places many other plants will not. It is quick to colonise neglected gardens turning them into a haven for wildlife as a provider of food with its pollen, nectar, fruit, leaves and soft young stems. Mature stems provide a shelter for mammals and birds in the protection of its thorns.  Where the stems of Blackberry touch the ground they develop roots and grow into new plants. Fruit is produced on stems in their second year, so it is the over wintering stems that are the source of next year’s Blackberries.

There is a long tradition of drinking blackberry leaves for medicinal purposes. Their usefulness in this context may relate to the tannins present in the leaves.  The leaves are the powerhouse of the plant transforming energy from the sun into fuel which sustains the plant.  As well as the main photosynthesising pigment, chlorophyll, which makes the leaves green for most of the year the leaves contain carotene, a yellow pigment and the purple pigment anthocyanin when plants are exposed to bright light, drought or cold. While needing sunlight to live the plant must also protect itself from constant UV exposure. These are the properties harnessed in Blackberry leaf extract which work as an anti-oxidant. As an active ingredient in ACQUIZHEN’s Nurturing Night Cream it decreases the effects of UVA exposure and has anti-ageing properties.