Plants→Morus→Red Mulberry (Morus rubra)

Red Mulberry is native from western Massachusetts & southern Vermont into far southeast Ontario to southeast Minnesota through central Kansas & Oklahoma through eastern Texas to southern Florida, usually in rich, moist soils, though it can grow in dry to draining wet soils. It does not tolerate bad or horrible urban soils like the much more common White Mulberry from China. The Red Mulberry is normally found as widely scattered trees and in areas of low levels of disturbance or none. The Chinese White Mulberry seeds itself around much more and grows together more thickly. Red Mulberry's leaves are 3 to 8 inches long and almost as wide, usually simple without lobes, but vigorous branches can have two-lobed or three lobed leaves, and the three-lobed leaves can be very deeply lobed. The margins of the leaves are shallowly toothed and not as coarse as the White Mulberry. The leaves are not shiny and often are with a deep, rough texture. The stems are stout and brown, often with a little hairiness. Red Mulberry trees are more upright and open growing than the Chinese species. The female trees bear the dark red-purple cylindrical fruit clusters about 1 inch long, usually longer than the Chinese species, and I think a little better tasting, and loved by birds and mammals. I believe a bacterial blight from Asia lessened the numbers of the American species, which is one reason it is not common as it used to be, but a number of survivors are showing resistance. The species grows about 2 to 2.5 feet/year and lives about 75 to 100 years. Some native plant nurseries sell Red Mulberry, but one needs to check it out to see if it is really a full-blooded specimen rather than a hybrid. There are a number of hybrid trees out there that normally are more Asian than American, but the leaves are less shiny and are rougher.

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Red mulberry is the native species of mulberry in North America. It's relatively uncommon now, found most often as an understory tree in high quality native woodlands. It is slowly being hybridized out of existance by the non-native, but much more common, White Mulberry (Morus alba).

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The ripe fruit is edible and is widely used in pies, tarts, wines, cordials and tea. Should be kept pruned to a height of six feet.

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