Marionberry

Last updated
Marionberry
Marionberries (2493507934).jpg
Genus Rubus
Hybrid parentage 'Chehalem' × 'Olallie'
Cultivar 'Marion'
Origin Marion County, Oregon, 1956

The marionberry (Rubus L. subgenus Rubus) is a cultivar of blackberry released in 1956 by the USDA Agricultural Research Service breeding program in cooperation with Oregon State University. [1] [2] [3] It is named after Marion County, Oregon, where the berry was bred and tested extensively in the mid-20th century. [1]

Contents

A cross between the 'Chehalem' and 'Olallie' varieties, [1] [2] it is the most widely planted cultivated blackberry in the world. [4] Oregon accounts for over 90% of the worldwide acreage of marionberries. [4]

Description and flavor

Marionberries may be called caneberries due to their typical extensive growth on long canes (vines) and brambles. [5] Marionberries are an aggregate fruit formed in a cluster of many juice filled sacks called drupelets. [5]

The marionberry plant is a vigorously growing trailing vine, with some canes up to 20 feet (6.1 m) long. [1] [3] The vines have many large spines, and the fruiting laterals are long and strong, producing many berries. [6] The berry is glossy and, as with many blackberries, appears black on the plant, but turns a deep, dark purple when frozen and thawed. [2] It is medium in size and tends to be conical, longer than it is wide. [2] The berry has a somewhat tart, earthy and sweet flavor. [2]

Development and cultivation

The marionberry was developed by the United States Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon. It was bred by George F. Waldo as a mix between the small, flavorful 'Chehalem' berry and the larger, better-producing 'Olallie' berry. [1] Both the 'Chehalem' and 'Olallie' berries are caneberry hybrids. Waldo made the initial cross in 1945, selected it as OSC 928 in 1948 in Corvallis, and tested it in Marion County and elsewhere in the Willamette Valley. [1] The berry was released in 1956 under the name Marion the county where it was first cultivated and tested. [1] [7] It is considered to be a "trailing" blackberry vine suitable for management in cultivation. [8]

Oregon produces 90% of the US grown, frozen blackberries found in US grocery stores, [9] with Marion County and the Willamette Valley collectively accounting for most of that production. [7] [9] The marionberry is well-adapted to the mild, maritime western Oregon climate, with its frequent rains and warm summers. [7] [9]

Marionberries ripen throughout spring and early summer, reaching their peak during July when they are hand-picked or machine-harvested. [4] [7] Some 900 Oregon growers produced marionberries, as of the early 2000s. [7] The harvesting season is typically between July 10 and August 10, with a single acre producing up to 6 tonnes (5.9 long tons; 6.6 short tons) in a harvest. [2] [7]

There is a hybrid variety with boysenberry in Australia called Silvanberry. Classed under the blackberry family, Silvanberry plants have many characteristics commonly found among other blackberry varieties. These plants are long living (15 to 20 years) perennials, hardy and cold tolerant, easy to grow, and productive spreaders. [10]

Not an invasive species

Although related to a blackberry species considered to be a noxious weed the Himalaya blackberry (R. armeniacus) which is an aggressive invasive species [8] marionberries are not invasive because they do not readily germinate to grow new canes from seed. [11] They are commonly pruned and trained on trellises. [8] [11]

Marionberry pedigree

The pedigree of marionberries involves 44% of Rubus ursinus, 25% of R. armeniacus, and 6% of R. idaeus (the red raspberry). [4]

Red Antwerp
Raspberry
Aughinbaugh
Pacific Blackberry
Crandall
Eastern Blackberry
Cuthbert
Red Raspberry
Pacific
Blackberry
Loganberry Mayes
Dewberry
Phenomenal
Santiam Himalayan
Blackberry
Black Logan Youngberry
Chehalem
Blackberry
Olallieberry
Marionberry

Marionberries as fresh or frozen fruit or in various products, such as jam, syrup or ice cream are widely consumed and prized by visitors to the Willamette Valley as a souvenir. [4] [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Berry</span> In the culinary sense, small edible fruit

A berry is a small, pulpy, and often edible fruit. Typically, berries are juicy, rounded, brightly colored, sweet, sour or tart, and do not have a stone or pit, although many pips or seeds may be present. Common examples of berries in the culinary sense are strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, red currants, white currants and blackcurrants. In Britain, soft fruit is a horticultural term for such fruits.

<i>Rubus</i> Genus of plants in the rose family

Rubus is a large and diverse genus of flowering plants in the rose family, Rosaceae, subfamily Rosoideae, with over 1,350 species, commonly known as brambles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blackberry</span> Fruit of Rubus species

The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by many species in the genus Rubus in the family Rosaceae, hybrids among these species within the subgenus Rubus, and hybrids between the subgenera Rubus and Idaeobatus. The taxonomy of blackberries has historically been confused because of hybridization and apomixis, so that species have often been grouped together and called species aggregates. For example, the entire subgenus Rubus has been called the Rubus fruticosus aggregate, although the species R. fruticosus is considered a synonym of R. plicatus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boysenberry</span> Hybrid species of berry

The boysenberry is a cross between the European raspberry, European blackberry, American dewberry, and loganberry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raspberry</span> Edible fruit

The raspberry is the edible fruit of a multitude of plant species in the genus Rubus of the rose family, most of which are in the subgenus Idaeobatus. The name also applies to these plants themselves. Raspberries are perennial with woody stems.

<i>Rubus spectabilis</i> Plant species

Rubus spectabilis, the salmonberry, is a species of bramble in the rose family Rosaceae, native to the west coast of North America from west-central Alaska to California, inland as far as Idaho. Like many other species in the genus Rubus, the salmonberry plant bears edible fruit, typically yellow-orange or red in color, resembling raspberries in appearance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Loganberry</span> Species of fruit and plant

The loganberry is a hybrid of the North American blackberry and the European raspberry.

<i>Rubus caesius</i> Species of flowering plant

Rubus caesius is a Eurasian species of dewberry, known as the European dewberry. Like other dewberries, it is a species of flowering plant in the rose family, related to the blackberry and raspberry. It is widely distributed across much of Europe and Asia from Ireland and Portugal as far east as Xinjiang Province in western China. It has also become sparingly naturalized in scattered locations in Argentina, Canada, and the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olallieberry</span> Blackberry variety

The olallieberry, sometimes spelled ollalieberry, olallaberry, olalliberry, ollalaberry or ollaliberry, is the marketing name for the 'Olallie' blackberry released by the USDA-ARS. The berry was a selection from a cross between the 'Black Logan', developed by Judge James Logan in California, and the youngberry, which was developed by Byrnes M. Young in Louisiana.

<i>Rubus occidentalis</i> Berry and plant

Rubus occidentalis is a species of Rubus native to eastern North America. Its common name black raspberry is shared with other closely related species. Other names occasionally used include bear's eye blackberry, black cap, black cap raspberry, and scotch cap.

<i>Rubus leucodermis</i> Species of plant

Rubus leucodermis, also called whitebark raspberry or blackcap raspberry, is a species of Rubus native to western North America.

'Kotata' is a blackberry cultivar with a diverse ancestry in a few Rubus species including western and eastern North American blackberry species and red raspberry. 'Kotata' was developed by the United States Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service in Corvallis, Oregon, United States in their cooperative breeding program with Oregon State University. In 1984, 'Kotata' was released as a potential replacement for the 'Marion' blackberry, with better cold tolerance and fruit firmness. However, while the taste of the 'Kotata' is unique and invariably good, it did not replace 'Marion' but was used as a slightly earlier complement to 'Marion'. 'Kotata' was selected from a cross of the two parents OSC 743 ['Pacific' × 'Boysen'] × OSC 877 ['Jenner' × 'Eldorado']. The pedigree of 'Kotata' has boysenberry, wild Pacific Northwest blackberries, an Eastern U.S. blackberry species and loganberry in its background. While it was released as a cultivar in 1984, it was first selected as OSC 1050 in 1951 and was grown commercially under that name. 'Kotata' has been grown primarily in the Pacific Northwest region of North America and in the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Youngberry</span> Hybrid cultivar of fruit and plant

The youngberry is a complex hybrid between three different berry species from the genus Rubus of the rose family: raspberry, blackberry, and dewberry. The berries of the plant are eaten fresh or used to make juice, jam, and in recipes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tayberry</span> Berry and plant

The tayberry is a cultivated shrub in the genus Rubus of the family Rosaceae patented in 1979 as a cross between a blackberry and a red raspberry, and named after the River Tay in Scotland.

Hapalosphaeria deformans is an ascomycete fungus. It is the causal organism of Stamen Blight of caneberry. It is a common disease in Pacific Northwest of North America, elsewhere in Canada, Denmark, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, and Spain. It affects the commercial harvest of Oregon dewberries, and boysenberries and cascadeberries in British Columbia. It is not commercially significant in red raspberry in Scotland.

<i>Rubus armeniacus</i> Species of fruit and plant

Rubus armeniacus, the Himalayan blackberry or Armenian blackberry, is a species of Rubus in the blackberry group Rubus subgenus Rubus series Discolores Focke. It is native to Armenia and Northern Iran, and widely naturalised elsewhere. Both its scientific name and origin have been the subject of much confusion, with much of the literature referring to it as either Rubus procerus or Rubus discolor, and often mistakenly citing its origin as western European. Flora of North America, published in 2014, considers the taxonomy unsettled, and tentatively uses the older name Rubus bifrons.

<i>Rubus ursinus</i> Berry and plant

Rubus ursinus is a North American species of blackberry or dewberry, known by the common names California blackberry, California dewberry, Douglas berry, Pacific blackberry, Pacific dewberry and trailing blackberry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chehalem blackberry</span> Berry cultivar

The Chehalem berry is a cross between the Himalayan blackberry and the Santiam berry, which is itself a cross between the California blackberry and the loganberry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Willamette Valley</span> Valley in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States

The Willamette Valley is a 150-mile (240 km) long valley in Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The Willamette River flows the entire length of the valley and is surrounded by mountains on three sides: the Cascade Range to the east, the Oregon Coast Range to the west, and the Calapooya Mountains to the south.

Bernadine Strik was a Dutch-Canadian-American horticulturist, horticultural researcher, and professor of horticulture.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Finn, C; Strik B; Lawrence FJ (1997). "'Marion' trailing blackberry". Fruit Varieties Journal. 51 (3): 130–3.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Marionberry". The Oregon Raspberry and Blackberry Commission. 2023. Retrieved 5 August 2023.
  3. 1 2 Danovich T (5 October 2016). "What's behind Oregon's marionberry mania?". The Salt, NPR. Retrieved 5 August 2023.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Bernadine Strik (31 January 2019). "Marionberry". Oregon Encyclopedia, Oregon Historical Society. Retrieved 5 August 2023.
  5. 1 2 "Varieties". The Oregon Raspberry and Blackberry Commission. 2023. Retrieved 5 August 2023.
  6. "Blackberry". Encyclopedia Britannica. 15 June 2023. Retrieved 5 August 2023.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Monica Mersinger (19 August 2005). "Marionberries: A delicious part of Salem's past". Willamette Heritage Center. Retrieved 5 August 2023.
  8. 1 2 3 Finn, Chad; Strik, Bernadine (1 December 2021). "Blackberry cultivars for Oregon". Extension Service, Oregon State University. Retrieved 5 August 2023.
  9. 1 2 3 "Why Oregon". The Oregon Raspberry and Blackberry Commission. 2023. Retrieved 5 August 2023.
  10. Amy Grant (20 July 2022). "Silvanberry Planting – How To Grow Silvanberries". Gardening Know How. Retrieved 5 August 2023.
  11. 1 2 Strik, Bernadine (1 June 2015). "Are marionberries invasive?". Extension Service, Oregon State University. Retrieved 6 August 2023.