Field guide · Late summer–autumn

Blackberry

Amora in Portugal, mora in Spain and Italy, mûre in France, Brombeere in Germany — and the Iberian word is older than the fruit it usually names. Amora comes from the Latin morum, the mulberry, and took in the bramble only by analogy, so a stall selling amoras may mean either; the tree is the amoreira. Telling the fruit from a raspberry is easier than telling the words apart: the pale core stays inside a picked blackberry, while a raspberry comes away hollow. English lore says pick them before Michaelmas, which is really frost, flies and mould. Simplest thing to do with it: eat them warm, standing at the bramble.

Noted 2026-08-03