Blackberry properties
Blackberry is a bristly plant shrub or creeper, recurrent, and is believed to be indigenous to Eastern N. America and is found in abundance from Nova Scotia to Ontario, New York, Virginia and North Carolina south. It appears in dry copses, clearings and forest edges, hedgerows, open pastures, waysides in and also in wastelands. Biologically termed as Rubus Alleghenies, the plant also goes by the popular names of Allegheny Blackberry, American Blackberry, Bly, Bramble, Bramble-Kite, Brambleberry, Brameberry, and is also sometimes known as Brummel.
Blackberry is suitable for eating and exhibits medicinal characteristics. The Native American tribes have been known to make use of it extensively. The leaf of the plant is the part of the plant which is more frequently exploited in the form of a remedial herb, although the root of the plant also exhibits medical properties. Young comestible shoots are reaped during the spring season, peeled off, and made use of in the preparation of salads. Blackberries are extremely delectable can be eaten raw or sometimes taken in the form of jelly or jam. The root-bark and the leaves are diuretic, styptic, depurative, vulnerable, and tonic. The cab is used as a productive substitute medicine for symptoms of dysentery, diarrhea, pileses, and cystitis.
Blackberries were in historic ages rumored to provide safety against all ‘evil runes,’ if collected during the appropriate lunar phases. Greek physicians were arguably the first to discover the medicinal properties of the herb. Native Americans produced fiber, procured from the stem of the plant, to make a tough yarn. Additionally, it served as an enormous blockade constituted by heaps of the prickly canes protecting the communities. (Jackson & Bergeron, p. 1).
A little story about the blackberry
“That wicked old witch dragged me into their cottage and the younger witch cut my arm and put my blood into boiling water”, said the ten-year-old weeping girl while many of the villagers kept nodding their heads in frustration. It had been the third attack this month on small children. The villagers in Little Middleton were completely at a loss not knowing what to do about a group of uncultured, nasty-looking women who were allegedly witches.
That summer a portly-looking elderly old monk, with a white beard came to the village to meet the priests of the village church. He displayed extraordinary healing capabilities. All villagers went to him to cure their ailments. He learned about the wicked witches and decided to visit them.
One evening he reached the edge of the woods surrounding the village, where there was a ruined cottage where the three witches lived. He politely knocked on the cottage door. A nasty-looking young woman answered and scowled at him. He asked the lady why they were doing such things to innocent children. She gave a frightened look and turned to a woman who had a crooked nose and she emerged out with another horrible-looking lady and they had a terrible argument with the monk. The villagers saw from their houses brightly lit sparks against the dusky skies at the edge of the woods.
It was nearly midnight when the monk returned with a bunch of stems and shoots and asked the villagers to plant these wherever they wanted. He said that the witches won’t trouble them in the future. He said he had trapped the wicked souls into those plants and they will bear berries that will have immensely powerful magical powers.
After a few days when the monk had left, the plants bore bunches of berries that were black in color. The villagers started using the leaves, stems of the plant and ate the berries. Slowly they discovered the many uses the plant has. They named the plant blackberries and believed that they were black because they had evil souls trapped within them.
Works cited
Jackson, Deb & Bergeron, Karen. “Blackberry“. AltNature Herbals Store. 2006. Wildcrafting. Web.