Who doesn’t love juicy ripe sweetened tart blackberries? While a welcome to find in nature, the invasive version of its type is the Himalayan Blackberry plant. Widely present along creeks and other areas where water sources are plentiful, the Himalayan blackberry can and will rapidly spread to overtake native surrounding plants, including the much less aggressive native blackberry. The two can be distinguished by a number of signs such as: Himalayan blackberries have darker green colored leaves of five where the underside is white. Himalayan stems are red, thick and stiff with bigger more numerous thorns, and can grow over 8 feet long. On the contrary, native blackberry plants have lighter colored green leaves of three, with green on the underside. Their stems are round and more pliable, growing smaller in length, about 5-6 feet.
Himalayan blackberries can easily overwhelm surrounding plants as well as become barriers for passage to humans, deer and other animals. Roots grow from multiple nodes along the stems, ensuring growth. New plants are also spread by birds eating the fruit and expelling the seeds.
The Land Trust staff works annually to remove Himalayan Blackberries at our Archer Taylor Preserve, to ensure natural habitat has opportunity to thrive and sustain its rightful place.
Want to help? Join us for a work party, where we have one coming up on June 10th! Click here to find out more.
