You can help fight an invasive species by eating it

A common fruit isn’t acting as sweet as it tastes. The Himalayan blackberry and Evergreen blackberry are Class C noxious weeds, making them both an invasive species, according to the Washington State Noxious Weed Control Board (NWCB).

Class C noxious weeds are “non-native species that can be designated for control based on local priorities,” as stated by King County.

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4 criteria make a plant an invasive species

To become a noxious weed a plant must meet four criteria, according to King County. The plant must be introduced to Washington, spread beyond where it is planted, create harm ecologically, environmentally or socially and be difficult to control.

“This harm can be agricultural, such as reducing crop output, ecological, such as out-competing our native plants, or physical, such as toxic to humans or livestock,” stated King County’s website. “They can impact wildlife, human health, land value, recreation and natural resources.”

King County described the Himalayan blackberry as a thorny, thicket shrub in the Rose family that creates large, edible blackberry fruits. The NWBC said the shrub may grow more than 13 feet and the plants grow into impenetrable thickets.

The leaves are divided into 3-5 leaflets that are rounded and have toothed edges. The shrub also produces flowers in flat-topped clusters of five to 20 flowers, each with five petals, white to light pink, about 1 inch in diameter. The Evergreen blackberry resembles the Himalayan blackberry but has ragged-looking leaves that are deeply lacerated or incised, according to King County.

The Evergreen blackberry. (Photo: Ben Legler via King County’s website)

The NWBC’s website states Himalayan blackberries “grow in mixed and deciduous forests and a variety of disturbed sites such as roadsides, railroad tracks, logged lands, field margins and riparian areas.”

“Native blackberries may be distinguished by their smaller, straighter, thinner thorns and leaves with three leaflets of a similar color on both sides,” states the Washington Invasive Species Council’s website.

Getting rid of blackberry shrubs

While eating the blackberries is one way to pick apart the plant, King County suggests digging, mowing, plowing, herbicide and/or livestock grazing, especially with goats.

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The Washington Invasive Species Council states to not purchase Himalayan or Evergreen blackberry plants or trade them. For more questions, residents can contact their county noxious weed coordinator.

Blackberries, according to the California Department of Education, are available from February to September with peak season from June to September.

Julia Dallas is a content editor at MyNorthwest. You can read her stories here. Follow Julia on X here and email her here.