Churchyard Nature Note with Andrew Tompsett
September 09
Bramble habitat
Love them or loathe them, brambles play
amajor part of our plan for encouraging wildlife in our living churchyard.
Although we have spent many hours bramble ‘bashing’, and continue to deal with the challenge they present, there is every reasonto regard a few large
patches of brambles asa very necessary habitat. As inaccessible places for birds
to shelter and nest, hiddenfrom predators like magpies, as a source of nectar for
our endangered honey bees population
andfor the autumn fruit enjoyed by insect, bird, beast and of course humans,
brambles are indispensable.
Like stinging nettles, about which I wrote recently, brambles are very successful plants.Seeds, spread largely by hungry blackbirds, establish new plants in some very unlikely places,including roof-tops. Their incredibly rapid growing shoots
can arch out
3 or more metres producing roots and a new plant at their tip each autumn,something the gardener can easily emulate to propagate a desirable (preferably thornless!) garden
cultivar.
Botanists claim that there are over 400
different wild bramble ( Rubus fruitcosus) varieties but not all are good fruiters.
Some are early and some late and flavour
and berry size varies.As autumn advances
the fruit spoils,it is said because the Devil
spits on them (or worse!) at Michaelmas.
The blackberries’ entangling thorns earned
them the name ‘lawyers’ in some places
difficult to escape from if one falls into their clutches! However, it is said that brambles
were welcomed as a deterrent to keep
sheep of family graves,and from even
more ancient times comes a macabre
suggestion that they might keep the deadin
and the Devil out!
Whilst many countrypursuits have declined
and supermarkets supply our every need, blackberrying continues to be a popular late summerpastime. With the maturing applesa
home-made pie is one of autumn’s enduring treats. Long may God’s free gifts of blackberries and Cornish apples be enjoyed by all lovers of the countryside and good honest food.