Boysenberry

The boysenberry has one of the more colorful, well-documented origin stories among American bramble fruits. Rudolph Boysen experimented with crossing blackberries, raspberries, and loganberries on a farm in Napa Valley, California, in the early 1920s, and by 1923 one of his hybrid vines successfully grafted and bore fruit up to two inches long. He later moved to Anaheim, planting vines at his in-laws' farm while working as the city's Parks Superintendent, but after breaking his back in an accident, he largely abandoned the project; in 1927 he took specimens to Coolidge Rare Plant Nursery in Altadena, where they were promoted as the "Sensation Berry of the 20th Century," though the effort still did not lead to commercial success. Years later, USDA berry specialist George M. Darrow recalled hearing about the berry and enlisted grower Walter Knott to help track Boysen down; by the time they found him, only a handful of neglected, wilted vines remained. Knott nursed the surviving plants back to health at his farm in Buena Park — now Knott's Berry Farm — and, in consultation with the USDA's Bureau of Plant Industries at Beltsville, named the fruit "boysenberry" in Rudolph Boysen's honor. Plants became commercially available in 1935, and Knott went on to build a considerable business around the berry, while Boysen himself never profited from his own discovery. The fruit itself is large, dark reddish-black, with a distinctive sweet-tart flavor especially valued for pies, jams, and preserves.