Rex Harrill <[log in to unmask]>:
>I've picked enough wild blackberries, safely, comfortably, and joyously,
>to be somewhat doubtful that Steve's "thorny attitude" is anything more
>than a means to keep *grazing* mammals at bay.

Tom:
The thorniness is such that it makes it difficult to pick a nutritionally
significant amount of wild fruit, in a reasonable time. I have personally
picked wild blackberries here in California, and wild yellow raspberries
in Japan.  Can you pick them? Yes, of course you can pick them. Can you
pick a nutritionally significant amount, without tools or protective
clothing, and in a reasonable period of time? (Note: a nutritionally
significant amount is probably 1 kg. or more.) Generally, no.

Do bears eat berries? Yes, but they have all day in which to collect them.
If you spent all day picking berries, you would pick more (quantity
of berries) as well.

The point here is that the thorniness, while it does not prevent mammals
from picking blackberries, does serve as a disincentive and sharply
reduces "berry predation" by mammals. That was and is the point of
my post. Another point was that once again, fruitarians are dealing in
their usual over-simplifications.

Tom Billings