Through the Seasons: Blackberry Twig

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The Blackberry, also known as Brambles, is typically found in hedges, or in enormous overgrown tangles. The fruit is edible raw, poached or turned into jam, and has a mild flavour with slight tang.

New twigs grow from old wood and bud, flower, and fruit all in a few months over Spring & Summer. Different twigs on the same bush may flower and fruit a few weeks apart.

The flowers are very short lived but come in relays and are used by many bees and butterflies. One image in the sequence has a Meadow Brown butterfly on it.

The fruit forms in similar relays. In our case the twig had two distinct fruiting surges, the first dropping most of it's fruit (or having it taken by birds, mice or in other circumstances, us) before the second got underway. Some of the second set of fruit dried on the twig

After the final image the twig was broken off in a summer storm. The twig and fruit will have fallen to the hedge bottom and birds or mice will find it.

This sequence was photographed in 2006 on the top of an East-West hedge looking upwards to the North East. The frames are registered on the growing tip and framing and scale adjusted to keep interesting items in view.
The frame with the interval marked (switch) indicates a switch to an alternate twig on an adjacent stem. The first withered unexpectedly during fruiting (possibly stem damage) while the second had erupted before we started photographing it. Although the second was 2 weeks later than the first the intervals in the finished sequence are real.

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