Edible Plants on UC Berkeley Campus

The Himalayan blackberry is a robust, clambering or sprawling, evergreen
shrub which grows up to 9.8 feet (3 m) in height [25,31].  Leaves are
pinnately to palmately compound, with three to five broad leaflets
[25,31].  Mature leaves are green and glaucous above but tomentose
beneath [31].

Stems of most blackberries are biennial.  Sterile first-year stems, or
primocanes, develop from buds at or below the ground surface and bear
only leaves [11].  During the second year, lateral branches, known as
floricanes, develop in the axils of the primocanes, and produce both
leaves and flowers [11].

Perfect flowers are borne in clusters of 3 to 20 [24,31].  Flowers are
most commonly white, but rose or reddish flowers also occur [24,31].
Ripe fruit, commonly referred to as "berries," are soft, shiny black and
composed of an aggregate of large succulent drupelets [3,25]. less ↑

This introduced perennial plant consists of trifoliate basal leaves with long petioles that develop from a crown of roots. The petioles have appressed white hairs. Each blunt-tipped leaflet is broadly ovate or obovate, spanning about 1½" in length and 1" across. The middle leaflet is wedge-shaped at the base. The margins of these leaflets are coarsely crenate-serrate, and they have conspicuous pinnate venation. The upper leaflet surfaces are medium to dark green and hairless. Occasionally, light green to reddish purple stolons develop from the crown that are long and slender. They have appressed hairs and form new plantlets at their tips.  The crown also produces one or more flowering stalks, each with a single flower. Each flower is about ¾" across, consisting of 5 yellow petals, 5 green sepals, numerous stamens with yellow anthers, and a central yellow receptacle with numerous pistils. The triangular sepals are about as long as the petals. Immediately underneath each flower, there are spreading bracts that are green and rectangular-shaped. Each bract has 3 teeth along its outer edge. The blooming period occurs from late spring to mid-summer and lasts about a month. Each flower is replaced by a bright red drupe about ½" across that is spheroid or ovoid in shape. There are small red seeds scattered across its rather bumpy surface. The sepals turn upward around the drupe. The drupes of this species have a bland flavor and dry texture. A colony of plants produces flowers and drupes sparingly, as most of the available energy is devoted to vegetative reproduction. The root system consists of crown with coarse secondary roots, which also produces stolons and possibly rhizomes. This species forms vegetative colonies readily. Cultivation less ↑

More info for the terms: bisexual, lignotuber, sclerophyllous, shrub, tree

Toyon is a native, broad-leaved, sclerophyllous, arborescent shrub which
typically grows from 6 to 10 feet (1.8 to 3 m) tall [9,24,45,56,58]. On
more favorable sites toyon may occasionally attain tree stature,
reaching heights of approximately 33 feet (10 m); however, in these
instances it typically retains a shrublike form [9]. Plants are erect,
freely branched, and unarmed [45]. Older branches have gray bark [45].
The dense foliage is composed of simple, evergreen leaves which are from
2 to 4 inches (5 to 10 cm) long and arranged alternately on the stem;
leaf margins are sharply toothed and bristly pointed [56,58]. The
inconspicuous, bisexual flowers are white in color and occur in loose,
somewhat flat, terminal clusters [56]. The bright red, berrylike fruits
are approximately 0.25 inch (5 to 6 mm) in diameter and contain one or
two, small brown seeds [37,45,46]. Toyon has a strong and much-branched
root system that is deeply penetrating and wide spreading [24]. Feeder
roots are abundant in the surface humus around the plant base as well as
elsewhere throughout the extensive root system. In response to repeated
postburn sprouting, toyon sometimes develops an enlarged rootcrown which
is irregularly shaped and platformlike [30]; this structure, however, is
not a lignotuber [30,31]. Longevity of toyon is estimated to be from
100 to 200 years [30].

Morphological distinctions between varieties are presented below
[45,46]:

H. a. var. arbutifolia - typical variety; fruit red
H. a. var. cerina - fruit yellow
H. a. var. macrocarpa - large fruited form; fruit red; leaves subentire less ↑