{{Short description|Hybrid species of berry}} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}} {{Hybridbox | name = ''Rubus ursinus'' × ''R. idaeus'' | image = Boysenberries.jpg | image_caption = Boysenberries in various stages of development<ref name="Taxonomy">{{cite web | url = http://www.oregon-berries.com/common/docs/datasheets/PROC_BOYSEN.pdf | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20111021204223/http://www.oregon-berries.com/common/docs/datasheets/PROC_BOYSEN.pdf | url-status = dead | archive-date = 2011-10-21 | title = Boysenberry characteristics (technical data) | access-date = 2008-09-13 | publisher = Oregon Raspberry and Blackberry Commission }}</ref> | genus = Rubus | subgenus = Rubus | species1 = ursinus | species2 = idaeus }} thumb|Boysenberry, June - Los Angeles, California
The '''boysenberry''' {{IPAc-en|ˈ|b|ɔɪ|z|ən|b|ɛr|i}} is a cross between the European raspberry (''Rubus idaeus''), European blackberry (''Rubus fruticosus''), American dewberry (''Rubus aboriginum''), and loganberry (''Rubus'' × ''loganobaccus'').<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UdKxFcen8zgC |first=John Griffith |last=Vaughan |author2=Geissler, Catherine Alison |title=The New Oxford Book of Food Plants |year=2009 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-954946-7 |page=88 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140416104527/http://books.google.com/books?id=UdKxFcen8zgC& |archive-date=2014-04-16 }}</ref>
== Description == Boysenberries grow on low, trailing plants.<ref name="LATimes">{{cite news |last=Karp |first=David |date=2010-05-27 |title=Boysenberry, a California treasure |url=https://www.latimes.com/food/la-xpm-2010-may-27-la-fo-boysenberry-20100527-story.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130714232910/http://articles.latimes.com/2010/may/27/food/la-fo-boysenberry-20100527 |archive-date=2013-07-14 |access-date=2024-08-12 |work=Los Angeles Times}}</ref> It is a large aggregate fruit with a deep maroon color, weighing {{Convert|8|g|oz}} and containing large seeds.<ref name="LATimes" /><ref name="OregonBerryHistory" /> The fruits are characterized by their soft texture, thin skins, and sweet-tart flavor. Mature fruits leak juice very easily and can start to decay within a few days of harvest.<ref name="LATimes" />
== History == The exact origins of the boysenberry are unclear, but the most definite records trace the plant as it is known today back to grower Rudolph Boysen, who obtained the dewberry–loganberry parent from the farm of John Lubben.<ref name="hancock">{{cite book|author1=Hancock, Jim F|title=Temperate Fruit Crop Breeding: Germplasm to Genomics (pages 91-92)|date=2008|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=978-1402069079|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=322hHeocPa0C&q=boysenberry|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201040601/https://books.google.ca/books?redir_esc=y&id=322hHeocPa0C&q=boysenberry#v=onepage&q=boysenberry&f=false|archive-date=2017-12-01}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.nytimes.com/1981/12/05/obituaries/walter-knott-of-knott-s-berry-farm-is-dead.html |title=Walter Knott of Knott's Berry Farm |work=The New York Times |author=Peter B. Flint |date=December 5, 1981 |quote=Rudolf Boysen...had crossed raspberry, loganberry, and blackberry shoots to produce a larger, lusher fruit that Mr. Knott dubbed a ''boysenberry.''}}</ref>
In the late 1920s, George M. Darrow of the United States Department of Agriculture began tracking down reports of a large, reddish-purple berry that had been grown on Boysen's farm in Anaheim, California.<ref name="OregonBerryHistory" /> Darrow enlisted the help of Walter Knott, another farmer, who was known as a berry expert. Knott had never heard of the new berry, but he agreed to help Darrow in his search.
Darrow and Knott learned that Boysen had abandoned his growing experiments several years earlier and sold his farm. Undaunted by this news, Darrow and Knott headed out to Boysen's old farm, on which they found several frail vines surviving in a field choked with weeds. They transplanted the vines to Knott's farm in Buena Park, California, where he nurtured them back to fruit-bearing health. Walter Knott was the first to commercially cultivate the berry in Southern California.<ref name="OregonBerryHistory">{{cite web|url=http://www.oregon-berries.com/boysenberry.cfm|publisher=Oregon Raspberry and Blackberry Commission|date=2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111021204733/http://www.oregon-berries.com/boysenberry.cfm|archive-date=2011-10-21|title=Oregon boysenberries|access-date=2008-09-13}}</ref>
He began selling the large berries at his farm stand in 1932 and soon noticed that people kept returning for more. When asked what they were called, Knott said, "Boysenberries", after their originator.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.knotts.com/coinfo/history/index.shtml |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090720054917/http://www.knotts.com/coinfo/history/index.shtml |url-status = dead |archive-date = 2009-07-20 |title = Knott's Berry Farm's History |access-date = 2008-02-22 }}</ref> His family's small restaurant and pie business eventually grew into Knott's Berry Farm.<ref name="LATimes" />
By 1940, {{cvt|599|acres}} of land in California were dedicated to boysenberries. The number dipped during World War II but peaked again in the 1950s at about {{cvt|2400|acre}}, to the point where boysenberry crops exceeded those of the (previously) more common raspberry and blackberry.<ref name=LATimes/> By the 1960s, the boysenberry began to fall out of favor due to a combination of being difficult to cultivate, susceptible to fungal diseases in coastal growing areas, and too soft and delicate to easily ship without damage, as well as having a short season of availability compared with newer cultivars.<ref name=LATimes/> In the 1980s, breeding efforts in New Zealand combined cultivars and germplasm from California with Scottish sources to create five new thornless varieties.<ref name=hancock/>
As of the early 2000s, fresh boysenberries were generally only grown for market by smaller California farmers and sold from local farm stands and markets.<ref name=LATimes/> Most commercially grown boysenberries, primarily from Oregon, are processed into other products such as jam, pie, juice, syrup, and ice cream.<ref name=LATimes/> As of 2016, New Zealand was the world's largest producer and exporter of boysenberries.<ref name=boysenberrynz>{{cite web|title=Welcome to Berryfruit New Zealand|url=http://www.boysenberry.co.nz/index.php|publisher=Berryfruit New Zealand|date=2017|access-date=16 June 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160801014229/http://www.boysenberry.co.nz/index.php|archive-date=1 August 2016}}</ref>
==Cultivation== As a raspberry-blackberry hybrid, the boysenberry plant prefers direct sun in fertile, loam soil with good drainage in the pH range of 5.6 to 6.5.<ref name="osu">{{cite web |vauthors=Bouska C, Dixon E, Strik B |title=Growing berries on the Oregon coast: raspberries and blackberries |url=https://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/em-9180-growing-berries-oregon-coast-raspberries-blackberries |publisher=Oregon State University, Extension Service |access-date=21 May 2026 |date=2025}}</ref> For optimal crop management, nitrogen fertilization is used initially, with rows of berries spaced at {{cvt|8|-|10|ft|m}} and individual plants {{cvt|2|-|2.5|ft|m}} apart, typically supported on a trellis.<ref name=osu/> Mulch is used for weed control and to preserve moisture.<ref name=osu/> Bees are the common pollinators.<ref name=osu/>
=== Cultivars === Since 2007, a hybrid variety called the "Newberry" or "Ruby Boysen", was developed to overcome cultivation challenges that led to the decline in boysenberry popularity, and was marketed through farm markets and retailers in California.<ref name=LATimes/> There is also a hybrid variety with marionberry called "Silvanberry" in Australia. 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.<ref>[https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/fruits/blackberries/silvanberry-information.htm Silvanberry Planting – How To Grow Silvanberries] ''Gardening Know How''.</ref>
The 'Nectar' cultivar of boysenberry should not be confused with the nectarberry, ''Rubus arcticus'', a plant native to arctic swamps.
== References == {{Reflist}}
{{Hybrid Rubus}} {{Taxonbar|from=Q896083}}
Category:Hybrid Rubus Category:Berries Category:Crops originating from North America Category:Fruits originating in North America Category:Agriculture in California Category:Knott's Berry Farm Category:Garden plants of North America Category:History of Orange County, California