The Mulberries
What are they?
Mulberries are popular ornamental trees, much favored for their fruits. The White Mulberry is the food plant of Silk Moth larvae and has long been cultivated in China.
Where are they found?
Red Mulberry is a native species of woodland edge; other species are ornamentals from Asia that may be found as naturalized trees in overgrown gardens, waste areas and succcessional habitats.
Identification
Paper Mulberry has downy leaves while the other mulberries are rather similar but identifiable with careful attention to leaf detail. Fruit color is useful but can vary. Black Mulberries are also cultivated but not normally found in the wider countryside.
Red Mulberry Morus rubra
The native mulberry of the eastern USA; once common in woodland, hedgerows and other scrubby places, but now much replaced by the introduced White Mulberry. Flowers May to June. Leaves variously lobed or unlobed, differing from those of White Mulberry by being generally a little smaller and having rough, not smooth, upper surfaces.
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White Mulberry Morus alba
A small to medium-sized, shrubby tree, introduced from Asia as a garden ornamental and now commonly self-seeding in waste ground and secondary successional habitats such as hedgerows and abandoned fields. Flowers May to June. Fruits vary from yellowish white through pale pink to dark red, though some very dark-fruited plants may actually be hybrids with the native Red Mulberry. Leaves may be lobed or unlobed and are almost hairless below, there just being a few hairs along the veins.
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Osage-orange Maclura pomifera
Introduced from Asia. A rare tree which may occasionally be found on waste ground or in old hedgelines. Flowers May to June. A rather nondescript tree with dark green leaves and often bearing thorns on young branches. Male and female flowers carried on separate plants, the female trees later bearing peculiar, grapefruit-like fruits which stay on the bare branches well into winter.
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Paper Mulberry Broussonetia papyrifera
Introduced from Asia. A small, shrubby tree with large, hairy leaves, found on partially-shaded waste ground and woodland edge. Flowers April to May. Leaves variously lobed or unlobed. Flowers borne in stiff spikes, opening with the leaves.
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