Plantae > Tracheophyta > Magnoliopsida > Rosales > Moraceae > Morus > Morus alba

Morus alba (mulberry; white mulberry)

Synonyms:

Wikipedia Abstract

Morus alba, known as white mulberry, is a short-lived, fast-growing, small to medium-sized mulberry tree, which grows to 10–20 m tall. The species is native to northern China, and is widely cultivated and naturalized elsewhere (United States, Mexico, Australia, Kyrgyzstan, Argentina, etc.). It is known as shahatut in Hindi शहतूत and Urdu شہتوت ,Tuta in Sanskrit, Tuti in Marathi, Dut in Turkish and Toot in Persian in Azerbaijani and in Armenian.
View Wikipedia Record: Morus alba

Infraspecies

Morus alba f. pendula
Morus alba var. indica
Morus alba var. multicaulis

Invasive Species

View ISSG Record: Morus alba

Attributes

Air Quality Improvement [1]  Low
Allergen Potential [1]  High
Carbon Capture [1]  Low
Screening - Summer [2]  Moderate
Screening - Winter [2]  Porous
Shade Percentage [1]  86 %
Temperature Reduction [1]  Medium-Low
Wind Reduction [1]  Medium-Low
Bloom Period [2]  Early Spring
Drought Tolerance [2]  Medium
Edible [3]  May be edible. See the Plants For A Future link below for details.
Fire Tolerance [2]  Low
Flower Type [3]  Monoecious
Frost Free Days [2]  4 months 10 days
Fruit/Seed Abundance [2]  High
Fruit/Seed Begin [2]  Spring
Fruit/Seed End [2]  Summer
Growth Form [2]  Single Stem
Growth Period [2]  Spring, Summer
Growth Rate [2]  Moderate
Hazards [3]  One report suggests that the raw fruit contains hallucinogens; This fruit is frequently eaten in various parts of the world, there are even some named varieties, and no such effects have been mentioned elsewhere, nor observed by the writer when he has eaten the fruit. Possibly the unripe fruit was being referred to in the report, though even this would be surprising;
Janka Hardness [4]  1540 lbf (699 kgf) Medium
Leaf Type [3]  Deciduous
Lifespan [2]  Perennial
Propagation [2]  Bare Root, Container, Cutting, Seed
Root Depth [2]  24 inches (61 cm)
Seed Spread Rate [2]  Moderate
Seed Vigor [2]  High
Seeds Per [2]  235000 / lb (518086 / kg)
Shape/Orientation [2]  Rounded
Specific Gravity [5]  0.58
Structure [3]  Tree
Usage [3]  A fibre is obtained from the bark of one-year old stems, it is used in weaving; The stem bark is fibrous and is used in China and Europe for paper making; The twigs are used as binding material and for making baskets; A brown dye is obtained from the trunk; The leaves contain 10% tannin; This tree can be grown as a part of a shelterbelt. The cultivar 'Tartarica' has been especially mentioned; The wood of the mulberry is a potentially excellent source of ethanol, with yields of up to 6% from sawdust treated with acid and then given four days incubation; Wood - light to moderately heavy, hard, durable, fine and close-grained, though it shows a tendency to warp. Due to its elasticity and flexibility when steamed, it is valued for making sports equipment such as tennis rackets and cricket bats, being considered as good as ash (Fraxinus excelsior); It is also used for boat building, furniture, agricultural implements etc; It furnishes a medium grade fuel wood;
Vegetative Spread Rate [2]  None
Flower Color [2]  Green
Foliage Color [2]  Green
Fruit Color [2]  Purple
Fruit Conspicuous [2]  Yes
Height [3]  59 feet (18 m)
Width [3]  33 feet (10 m)
Hardiness Zone Minimum [1]  USDA Zone: 5 Low Temperature: -20 F° (-28.9 C°) → -10 F° (-23.3 C°)
Hardiness Zone Maximum [1]  USDA Zone: 9 Low Temperature: 20 F° (-6.7 C°) → 30 F° (-1.1 C°)
Light Preference [2]  Mixed Sun/Shade
Soil Acidity [2]  Moderate Acid
Soil Fertility [2]  Infertile
Water Use [1]  Moderate
View Plants For A Future Record : Morus alba

Protected Areas

Predators

External References

USDA Plant Profile

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1i-Tree Species v. 4.0, developed by the USDA Forest Service's Northern Research Station and SUNY-ESF using the Horticopia, Inc. plant database.
♦ 2USDA Plants Database, U. S. Department of Agriculture
♦ 3Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
♦ 4Wood Janka Hardness Scale/Chart J W Morlan's Unique Wood Gifts
♦ 5Jérôme Chave, Helene C. Muller-Landau, Timothy R. Baker, Tomás A. Easdale, Hans ter Steege, Campbell O. Webb, 2006. Regional and phylogenetic variation of wood density across 2,456 neotropical tree species. Ecological Applications 16(6), 2356 - 2367
♦ 6Biological Records Centre Database of Insects and their Food Plants
♦ 7HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants Gaden S. Robinson, Phillip R. Ackery, Ian J. Kitching, George W. Beccaloni AND Luis M. Hernández
♦ 8Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 9Ben-Dov, Y., Miller, D.R. & Gibson, G.A.P. ScaleNet 4 November 2009
♦ 10Boselaphus tragocamelus, DAVID M. LESLIE, JR., MAMMALIAN SPECIES 813:1–16 (2008)
♦ 11Diets of Hangul Deer Cervus elaphus hanglu (Cetartiodactyla: Cervidae) in Dachigam National Park, Kashmir, India, G. Mustafa Shah, Ulfat Jan, Bilal A. Bhat & Fayaz A. Ahangar, Journal of Threatened Taxa | July 2009 | 1(7): 398-400
♦ 12del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.
♦ 13New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Plant-SyNZ™ database
♦ 14Dimitrios E. Bakaloudis, Christos G. Vlachos, Malamati A. Papakosta, Vasileios A. Bontzorlos, and Evangelos N. Chatzinikos, Diet Composition and Feeding Strategies of the Stone Marten (Martes foina) in a Typical Mediterranean Ecosystem The Scientific World Journal, vol. 2012, Article ID 163920, 11 pages, 2012
♦ 15Parabemisia myricae (Kuwana) (Insecta: Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae: Aleyrodinae), Avas B. Hamon, Ru Nguyen, Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Division of Plant Industry, and Harold Browning, University of Florida, June 2000. Latest revision: August 2014
♦ 16Seasonal Variation of Diet and Food Availability in a Group of Sichuan Snub-Nosed Monkeys in Shennongjia Nature Reserve, China; Li Yiming; American Journal of Primatology 68:217–233 (2006)
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0