Can such berries take a month to get ripe? (7)
I believe the answer is:
juniper
'can such berries' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I cannot see how they can define each other.
'a month to get ripe?' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'a' could be 'per' (eg 'one a day' means 'one per day') and 'per' is present in the answer.
'month' could be 'jun' (abbreviation for June) and 'jun' is present in the answer.
A single letter 'i' remains which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'take' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for juniper that I've seen before include "kind of berries" , "Shrub providing flavour for gin" , "Evergreen shrub or small tree with berry-like cones" , "Shrub flavouring gin" , "Plant producing berries used to flavour gin" .)