Muin or Bramble

Ground hugger
Although not a tree, the origins of Muin belong with the vine, which is strictly a shrub or small tree. Necessarily, the vine became transposed to bramble, when transplanted from Greece to Britain. The flowers of bramble have five petals and are rose-like white or pink, 2-3cm across, that appear from June to August, followed by the familiar blackberry fruit.

Bounty of berries
Found in hedgerows, scrub, heathland, woodlands, and wasteground, brambles are thorny plants of the genus Rubus, and the name, bramble, refers simply to the fruit of any such plant, which include the blackberry and raspberry. The word originates from the German bram-bezi, as do brombeere and the French framboise. Bramble thrives in most soils and is able to grow in the sun or in partial or full shade.

Two-year plan
A bramble bush has a distinctive way of growing, sending its long, arching canes upwards from a perennial rootstock each spring. These canes have a two-year ‘life span’ and produce leaves on their first year shoots that are compound and palmate, with 5 - 7 leaflets. In the second year, lateral shoots develop which bear the flowers. The leaves on these lateral shoots are slightly smaller, and have 3 - 5 leaflets.

Larder
Although they dont flower or set fruit until the second year of growth, all types of bramble bear edible fruit. Most species are important for their conservation and wildlife value in their native range. The flowers attract numerous nectar-feeding butterflies and hoverflies, and important food plants for their larvae. Birds, especially blackbirds, and various mammals feed on the nutritious fruits in autumn.

Binding barrier
Split bramble stems are traditionally used as binding material for straw in production of basketry, (lipwork) chairs and bee skeps. Sometimes planted amongst hawthorn in hedges to help bind the whole together and make a stronger barrier. Robins, wrens, thrushes, blackbirds, warblers and finches all nest in bramble and small mammals use it for protection from predators. Many moths (including buff arches, peach blossom and fox) lay their eggs on bramble for their larvae to feed on. The hooked thorns, as well as deterring grazing animals from eating them, also help to support the plant by latching onto other vegetation as it grows.

Oldest food
The stems can easily grow to a length of five metres, and when they run out of support, the tip of the stem droops to the ground, takes root, and sends up a new plant. In this way the blackberry can leap-frog over hedges and walls, and colonise new fields. Large amounts of bramble can affect the growth and development of other plants. It can protect plants from grazing young tree seedlings but equally it can prevent the development of light loving species. The green berries appear in July, gradually darkening to black by August. Eaten raw, cooked in pies, jams and in a variety of ways, bramble has formed part of the human diet in Western Europe for thousands of years. Examination of ‘Haraldskaer woman’ indicated that blackberries formed part of her diet.

Taboo date
Sacred (as vine) to Dionysus and to Osiris as a tree of joy, exhiliration and wrath, in celtic countries there is strong taboo against eating the fruit of bramble after Michaelmas (29 Sept) ‘because the devil enters them’. In Brittany reasons given for this are ‘because of the fairies’, while in Majorca because it was the bush chosen for the Crown of Thorns, and in Wales simply because of the warning that they became poisonous after this date.