The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by many species in the Rubus genus in the Rosaceae family, hybrids among these species within the Rubus subgenus, and hybrids between the Rubus and Idaeobatus subgenera. The taxonomy of the 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.

Description

What distinguishes the blackberry from its raspberry relatives is whether or not the torus (receptacle or stem) 'picks-with' (i.e. stays with) the fruit. When picking a blackberry fruit, the torus does stay with the fruit. With a raspberry, the torus remains on the plant, leaving a hollow core in the raspberry fruit.

The term 'bramble', a word meaning any impenetrable thicket, has traditionally been applied specifically to the blackberry or its products, though in the United States it applies to all members of the Rubus genus. In the western US, the term caneberry is used to refer to blackberries and raspberries as a group rather than the term bramble.

The blackberry is a widespread and well known shrub of the Rubus genus, and its fruit. It may also refer to:

Company and products

BlackBerry Limited, formerly known as Research In Motion Limited (RIM), is a Canadian telecommunication and wireless equipment company best known to the general public as the developer of the BlackBerry brand of smartphones and tablets, but also well known worldwide as a provider of secure and high reliability software for industrial applications and mobile device management (MDM). QNX, a subsidiary of BlackBerry, is widely recognised as a leader in automotive software industry. BlackBerry's software and hardware products are used worldwide by various government's agencies and by car makers and industrial plants throughout the world, much of this activity being unseen by the public. The company is headquartered in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by Mike Lazaridis and Douglas Fregin in 1984. Mr. Fregin later left the company. In 1992 Mr. Lazaridis hired Jim Balsillie, and Mr. Lazaridis and Mr. Balsillie served as co-CEOs until January 22, 2012. In November 2013, John S. Chen took over as CEO. His strategy is to subcontract manufacturing to Foxconn, and to focus on software technology.