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Season: Summer

Urban, Rural or Both: Both

Mulberries: Red Mulberry (Morus rubra) (native to North America), the White Mulberry (Morus alba) (native to Asia, but now naturalized in North America) and the Black Mulberry (Morus nigra) - also not native to North America - which is occasionally found as a tree planted for its fruit, although not known to have naturalized in North America like it has in Europe. The Mulberry is a great wild, and often city found berry. Along fence lines, in parks, backyards, fields let go wild, roadsides, well, almost everywhere in the Carolinian zone. They look a lot like a Raspberry or Blackberry, but the taste is unique. They tend to become ripe in July, and they let you know when they are ripe by turning a dark red/purple color. When not ready, they are first greenish or whitish, then pinkish.

They make great fresh eating right off the tree, pick them and keep in the fridge, or cooked into baked goods - a really good all around berry. If they are frozen, when thawed they are quite mushy, but still good for baked items. The Red and Black Mulberry fruit is very tasty, while the White Mulberry is similar, but not as good - the flavor is duller. It is hard to tell if you have a Black or Red Mulberry unless you are looking for the differences, but they taste more or less the same, so really it doesn't matter. It is getting very hard to tell if you have a Red or White Mulberry now, as the trees are interbreeding, and blending into each other. Bottom line, taste the berry and see what you think. The good news is, all are edible, and even the worst tasting of the White Mulberries is just dull and sweet.

Mulberries contain relatively high amounts of the nutrient resveratrol.

Mulberry recipe search on the web for Mulberries from any of the three types of Mulberry tree here (Google search) and here (Bing search).

Growing Mulberry trees in your home garden:

For detailed growing instructions, go to my Wild Foods Home Garden website Mulberry page.

Red Mulberry (Morus rubra):

This tree is fairly common in the USA, but is only in a couple of areas that I'm aware of in Canada. In west London, Ontario (Byron area), along the Thames river valley - however development in that area has cut down most of the ones I knew of. Also, along the shores of Lake Erie on the Canadian side from Port Stanley south - but be careful - that is the same area that is renowned as the richest Poison Ivy, Western Poison Ivy growing area in North America. I have seen woods along there that I would guess have half of their biomass in the form of very healthy Poison Ivy.

Description:

• Plant Size: Up to 20 meters (65 feet) tall, but usually shorter, in open areas tends to grow shorter and wide - a fast growing tree when young
• Duration: Lives up to around 125 years old
• Leaf Shape: Heart shaped, when tree is young, some leaves have deep lobes (usually asymmetrical), when older there are fewer lobed leaves. Can have one deep lobe near stem end of leaf giving a mitten shape to the leaf
• Leaf Phyllotaxis (Leaf Arrangement) on branch: Alternate
• Leaf Size: 7-14 cm (2 3/4 to 5 1/2 inches) long and 6-12 cm (2 1/3 to 4 3/4 inches) wide
• Leaf Margin: finely Serrated (saw toothed edge)
• Leaf Notes: A rough, scratchy, hairy texture on the upper side of the leaf, and soft hairy texture on the underside. Normally this feature can be used to distinguish from the White Mulberry, but since they are hybridizing, this feature is not as reliable
• Flowers: Catkins of tiny flowers. Male flowers are light yellow on a green catkin. Female flowers are white on green catkins.
• Fruit: Looks like a Blackberry or Raspberry. First green, then red (Raspberry color), then a dark purple (Blackberry color). 2-3 cm (4/5 to 1 1/5 inches) long. If a pure Red Mulberry - the taste is rich and sweet, if a hybrid with the White Mulberry, the taste can vary from good to dull.
• Bark: Twigs: reddish brown. Small trunks and branches: reddish brown. Main trunk on mature tree: Grey, broken in to vertical sections, or plates, with reddish tint to areas inside fissures.
• Habitat: Zone 5 or warmer, well drained rich soils. Can tolerate a range of conditions, prefers full sun, but will survive some shading, from slightly acidic to moderately alkaline soils - seems to do best where slightly alkaline.

• Pictures of the tree on the web here (Google images) and here (Bing images).
• Pictures of the berries on the web here (Google images) and here (Bing images).
• USDA distribution map and plant profile here.
• The Biota of North America Program (BONAP) distribution map here. BONAP map color key here.

White Mulberry (Morus alba). Not native to North America (originally from China) but now a very common naturalized tree in Eastern North America to the point it is being labelled an invasive species in many areas. Hybridizes with the Red Mulberry, so sometimes it is very hard to tell what tree you have.

Though a perfectly safe berry to eat, it is least tasty of the three. It is sweet, but there is a dull lack of balancing tartness and less flavor. Hybrids with the Red Mulberry can be anywhere in between in taste. Although most have berries that are red, there are cultivars that have off-white and pink ripe fruit. The easiest way to tell if you have one of these is by the shiny, smooth upper leaf surface (dull and scratchy on the other two) and the taste of the fruit. Really though, if you like the taste of the fruit from a tree, it doesn't matter which one you have. Where I live in Southwestern Ontario, there are more hybrids now than either the Red or White Mulberry, and you just have to taste the berry before deciding whether to harvest more.

Though this is not an herbal book, I have to say there are a lot of positive claims for the young leaves when made into tea. It is claimed they help regulate blood sugar (regardless of cause), block absorption of carbohydrates thus helping with weight control, plus it is claimed the tea helps with cognition, memory formation and reduces plaque in the arteries. So what the berries lack in flavor, the leaves apparently make up for.

Description:

• Plant Size: Up to 20 meters (65 feet) tall.
• Duration: Can live many decades
• Leaf Shape: Ovate to heart shaped, with or without lobes. Generally, on smaller trees many of the leaves have irregular lobes, on more mature trees there are fewer leaves with lobes.
• Leaf Phyllotaxis (Leaf Arrangement) on branch: Alternate
• Leaf Size: Very young trees: up to 30 cm (12 inches) long with many deep rounded lobes. Mature trees: up to 15 cm (6 inches) long, fewer leaves have lobes
• Leaf Margin: finely Serrated (saw toothed edge)
• Leaf Notes: Lobing is highly variable, not as rough or dark colored on the leaf upper surface as the other two Mulberry trees. Upper leaf surface is glossy. Seedlings have larger leaves with a yellow hue.
• Flowers: Catkins of tiny flowers. Male flowers are light yellow on a green catkin. Female flowers are white on green catkins.
• Fruit: 1-2.5 cm (2/5 to 1 inch) long. Dark Purple when ripe in most wild variants, however there are cultivars that have off-white and pink ripe fruit.
• Bark: Younger bark has an orange tint to it, becoming more grey as it gets older with some orange inside fissures. When young and the bark is smooth there are off-white horizontal lenticels (checking). When older, there are vertically oriented high ridges.
• Habitat: Highly adaptable to most any soil type except very acidic. Can tolerate wide range of moisture. Does better in full sun, but will survive shading except for very dark shade.

• Pictures of the tree on the web here (Google images) and here (Bing images).
• Pictures of the berries on the web here (Google images) and here (Bing images).
• USDA distribution map and plant profile here.
• The Biota of North America Program (BONAP) distribution map here. BONAP map color key here.

Black Mulberry (Morus nigra). I don't think I've ever had the fruit from this particular Mulberry, but from what I gather, the fruit tastes basically the same as the Red Mulberry. There are cultivars that have been bred to produce particular characteristics with the fruit, such as very long berries.

Description:

• Plant Size: Up to 12 meters (40 feet) tall.
• Duration: Moderately long lived tree
• Leaf Shape: Ovate to heart shaped.
• Leaf Phyllotaxis (Leaf Arrangement) on branch: Alternate
• Leaf Size: 10-20 cm (4 to 8 inches) long by 6-10 cm (2 to 4 inches) wide, though can be bigger on fast growing seedling
• Leaf Margin: Serrated (saw toothed edge)
• Leaf Notes: This Mulberry has leaves that are rarely lobed, soft and hairy on underside, rough and hairy on upper side of leaf
• Flowers: Catkins of tiny flowers. Male flowers are light yellow on a green catkin. Female flowers are white on green catkins.
• Fruit: Tasty, variable in length. Green and orange at first, then orange-red, and finally dark purple/black when ripe
• Bark: Grey on mature trunks, with irregular vertical ridging
• Habitat: Zone 5-11. Withstands most conditions except extremes in Eastern North America.

• Pictures on the web here (Google images) and here (Bing images).
• USDA distribution map and plant profile here.
• The Biota of North America Program (BONAP) distribution map here. BONAP map color key here.

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