'Black Pearl' Thornless Trailing Blackberry

Abstract

fruit breeding, spineless 'Marion' is currently the most important blackberry (Rubus L. subgenus Rubus) cultivar in the world and it is the predominant cultivar grown for the processed fruit market While 'Marion' produces fruit of outstanding quality for processing, the plants are thorny (botanically termed spiny). When 'Marion' is machine harvested, thorns can end up in the product As a result, a primary priority for the breeding program has been the development of cultivars that are thornless, machine harvestable, and retain the excellent processing characteristics of 'Marion'. Three thornless blackberry cultivars with these qualities are being released simultaneously: 'Black Pearl', 'Black Diamond' (Finn et al., 2005a) and 'Nightfall' (Finn et al., 2005b).