Briar

A 'briar' is not a name for a particular kind of plant, but rather for a whole class of different shrubs with a common appearance. Also sometimes called 'brambles', these are low-growing plants that form thickets of dense woody stems carrying prickles or thorns. Some, like the blackberry, produce edible berries, while others, like the wild rose, are better known for the flowers they produce.

Briars and brambles were found far and wide across Middle-earth. They were known to grow in the woodlands and wetlands of the Shire (and flowering varieties were also apparently grown in the Shire-hobbits' gardens).¹ Farther afield, they grew amid the woods of the Vales of Anduin and along the banks of the Great River.

Frodo Baggins and Sam Gamgee found many different kinds of briar in the fertile land of Ithilien, and they could even be found eastward of the mountains of Ephel Dúath in the valleys of Mordor. Indeed, briars and brambles seem to have been one of the few kinds of plants that could grow in the harsh environment of the Dark Land, where they developed unusually hard stems and cruel claw-like thorns.