28-Aug August's Bounty of Berries

Early in the month we start to notice more and more apples and pears on the ground. Most of these are quickly devoured by blackbirds and woodpigeons. With there being quite a range of different cherries Prunus spp. they are quite variable as to when they produce their crop. Cherry plum P. cerasifera may have been noticed last month in hedgerows along with our indigenous wild cherry P. avium.

If the latter cherries are eaten they are invariably a disappointment with some being quite bitter. Despite this, in the past they were picked for pies and jams. Another wild cherry is the bird cherry P. padus which is popular for street planting. It produces its small, black, poisonous berries towards the end of the month. In excess, they produce symptoms similar to cyanide poisoning but small amounts were still used to flavour brandy and wine.

In gardens some laurel bushes are now producing scarlet berries, which stand out against their deep green foliage. Roses, especially rugosa roses, are developing similarly coloured hips. Other berries that may be noticed in gardens include tutsan, burnet rose and barberries. As the month progresses it is the two great stalwarts Cotoneaster and Pyracantha that we see the most.

Their berries are either yellow, orange or red. Laburnums, limes, hornbeams and beech are all now forming fruits. Many of the maples and even sycamores have smart red edges to their keys and in the tree of heaven the edges are even a bright lime green and tan. Acorns are swelling, birches are forming catkins, ashes are developing heavy clusters of green seeds and even Lawson cypresses are covered in small cones.

Now is the time to pick blackberries, preferably in the first half of the month. They have exceptionally complex sex lives and are able to set seed without sex as well as hybridising and forming clones.

The result is that there are over one thousand different brambles and around one hundred of them can be found in London. This means there are not just differences in leaf shape but also in the number of pips, amount of juice and even the perfume of different berries. It also means many Londoners pick from their favourite patch where they feel the berries are tastiest, as long as the birds have not got there first. Blackbirds, song thrushes, starlings, great tits, greenfinches, bull finches and even whitethroats are all well known raiders of blackberry bushes. Dewberries Rubus caesius look very similar to blackberries but their juice is redder, not as sweet and more delicate in flavour. Consequently, they were added to poor wine to improve its colour and taste.

It can be recognised by its slightly larger dark blue fruits which have a bloom and also by its fewer pips. In Midsummer Night’s Dream, Queen Titania feeds Bottom with dewberries. There are rarely enough to collect a bowlful, except in chalky areas along the North Downs.

Similarly, it is equally difficult to collect a bowl of wild strawberries. They can still be found in some woods around the edges of London but are never particularly abundant unless timber has been recently felled and the runners have been allowed to run rampant. Londoners were transplanting them into their gardens four hundred years ago and bowls were being sold in London’s streets to cries of “strawberry ripe”. On the same chalky slopes you find dewberries, the most dazzling of August fruits, the wayfaring tree Viburnum lantana are also starting to be seen.

It is unusual in that the berries form in a tight cluster but ripen at different times. At first they are green, then turn a brilliant scarlet and at this stage are all firm and astringent to taste. Later they soften, turn black with a slight bloom and have a slight plum flavour when eaten. The clusters can look so shiny they look like boiled sweets, but unfortunately they are poisonous. Their juice was made into an ink and also a hair dye, but it was the stems that were most useful. They are so pliable they were used to tie bunches of faggots before string was invented.

One of the most familiar and common of our wild berries is Elderberry. Elderberries are still being used to make wine, jelly and jams. If too many are eaten and they are not fully ripe they can cause dizziness and also nausea. Not so for birds, which are largely responsible for the purple stains we notice on the bushes. Rabbits are also said to enjoy them. In London’s streets, it is the scarlet berries of endless mountain ashes that tend to get noticed the most. Towards the end of the month they are joined by the hawthorns. On waste ground the dried, rust-coloured seeds of docks stand out well as do the skeleton seed heads of hogweeds and hemlocks. Rosebay willow herbs, thistles and poplars are all now producing vast numbers of silky seeds that seem to float in the air. Snowberries get noticed because their fruits are large, off white and perfect globes. So little likes eating them they are likely to still be visible four months from now. The shrub arrived from North America two centuries ago to be used to create quick hedging. Now it is found all over London and enjoyed by children who squeeze the fruits to hear the ‘pop’.

The juice can sometimes irritate the skin and if the fruit is eaten it can lead to delirium. Quite different are the small nutlets now to be seen on common mallow Malva sylvestris. These were sufficiently popular they were called ‘cheeses’ and eaten by children with relish. The Roman poet Martial was also fond of them for getting rid of his hangovers after orgies.

The prize for the most striking yet sinister-looking berry of the month might well go to Herb Paris Paris quadrifolia. It used to be called One-berry and is rarely seen except in the gloom of old chalk woodland. Every part of this plant is poisonous and especially the berry, as it sits singly in the centre of a cross of leaves looking far more tempting than most. A set of unpleasant symptoms such as difficulty in passing urine, constricted pupils and delirium can all result from eating them. Luckily, they are usually difficult to spot in the shade and also have an unpleasant taste. However, this still didn’t stop them being used to cure bewitched cows. Selsdon wood and the more remote woods in the Westerham area might still be places where it might be found.