Observation: Picking blackberries on Haida Gwaii usually ends in late September. We have been picking them and eating them past mid-November. To pick and eat berries past mid November is a significant change.
LEO BC comment: The extension of the Himalayan blackberry (Rubus armeniacus) picking season into mid- or late November is a clear shift in the seasonal timing (phylogeny) of blackberries, especially given the 50 year observational time series that Mr. John Disney brings. Based on Hansen's Northwest Native Plant Database, the photo that Mr Disney provides in this post is of the Himalayan blackberry (Rubus armeniacus), which was introduced to North America in 1885 as a cultivated crop. A score of similar observations of seasonal shifts in berries have been documented in Alaska as LEO observations since the LEO network surveillance began in 2012, and are compiled on the Wild Berries project page. A paper summarizing these LEO observations and a resulting survey has been published (Hupp et al. 2015).
A warmer than usual climate during 2014-2016 would explain the observed seasonal change in this species. The Northeast Pacific coastal ocean was also anomalously warm, particularly in 2015, and for the last three years (see Figures 2-4). Blackbery picking and eating into November of 2016 is consistent with this unusually warm coastal and ocean weather. - Dr. Tom Okey, UVic School of Environmental Studies and Ocean Integrity Research
Comment by Fiona Chambers on 11 Dec 16: We have experienced a similar shift on Southern Vancouver Island, with a noted increase in the length of time that Himalayan blackberries are still palatable. Until the cold weather of this past week we were still eating them off the plants at my farm here in Metchosin - and while they were definitely sour, they had not gone rotten yet. Along with studying traditional berry 'gardens' that were cultivated prior to European contact by coastal First Nations such as the Heiltsuk, I am also a commercial farmer and seed breeder. Other late-season soft fruit, such as overbearing raspberry varieties, have also had an extended harvest season over the past few years, which in our area have been dominated by an El Nino presence. I think it's interesting to note that some of our native berry species, such as salad and evergreen huckleberry, can also stay on the bush in good condition - sometimes into February. This is in part due to the high levels of anthocyanins in the protective skin coat (see recent research by Peter Constabel at UVic, for example). - Fiona Hamersley Chambers, UVic School of Environmental Studies.
Links:
E-FLORA BC on Rubus armeniacus Focke, Himalayan blackberry
Wikipedia, Rubus armeniacus
USDA Natural REsoruces Conservation Service on Rubus armeniacus
Book: Wild Berries of British Columbia by Fiona Hamersley Chambers
References:
Chambers, F. H. 2011. Wild Berries of British Columbia. Lone Pine Publishing, 192 pp.
Hupp, J., M. Brubaker, K. Wilkinson, and J. Williamson. 2015. How are your berries? Perspectives of Alaska's environmental managers on trends in wild berry abundance. International Journal of Circumpolar Health 74:28704-28704.
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