Black Berries and Red Black Berries

This page is for a forum question - to show the people what berries we have. I am wondering what kinds of berries these are - I am thinking the Red berries are also Blackberry. But really have no idea. They all are wild ones and have appeared on our fence line since we moved here about 5 years ago and put up all the fencing. This page will be photo intensive and hopefully not TOO slow loading.

Black and Red Berries - picked

Here the top 4 berries came from the "black" berry bushes and the bottom 4 berries came from the "red" berry bushes. I am showing them in various stages of development. Notice that the not ripe Black Berry at the top is practically the same color as the ripe Red berries at the bottom - however they are very different. The 'black' one is definitely not ripe and the 'red' ones are most definitely ripe ones.

The red berries start out white and turn pink then become a deep pomegranet (sp?) colored red when they are plumping up. The black berries start out red (see the one with the stem) - turn pomegranet red then black then plump up.

Here are more of each - notice that none of the berries are hollow (like raspberries). They all have a core and all have seeds. On the mature bushes the ripe berries eventually obtain similar size and plumpness.

Something of possible note. On the fence line - the berry bushes starting at the north end  are black - eventually they become the red berry bushes and no more black ones grow in amongst the red ones - it is like they were planted that way (however we did not plant any and they are all volunteers).

The next section shows berries on the bushes -  the leaves and the bushes themselves.

Black Berries

small bush  relatively new bush however not on the same fence line

  

larger more mature bush

 

Red Black Berries? What are these?

This is a very new red berry bush

A more mature bush:

  

So what are they? What are the red berries and what kind are the black ones? I was considering that they are the same plants but a different soil composition. They grow on the same fence line about 100 feet from the beginning of the mature black berries to the end of the newest, immature red ones.

The red ones are only slightly sweeter - both have a bit of a bitter aftertaste - especially in the seeds. We have enjoyed all with a bit of sugar and milke/cereal or yogurt - and plan to make some cobblers with them.

This is the first year I have bothered with them much. The previous years have been more of drought years and we have had the goats in the paddocks with these. The goats like the leaves but not the berries. The dogs love the berries. The horses totally ignore them.