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FAMILY
N.O. Artocapaceae
SPECIES
Morus nigra/alba
DESCRIPTION
The Common Mulberry is a handsome tree, 20 to 30 feet high, of rugged, picturesque appearance, forming a dense, spreading head of branches usually wider than the height of the tree, springing from a short, rough trunk. |
| It bears unisexual flowers, the sexes in separate spikes, or catkins, which are small, more or less cylindrical and in no way beautiful. The oblong, short-stalked 'fruit,' which when ripe is about an inch long and of an intense purple, is really a fruit-cluster, composed of little, closely-packed drupes, each containing one seed and enclosed by the four enlarged sepals, which have become succulent, thus forming the spurious berry. By detaching a single fruit from the cluster, the overlapping lobes of the former perianth may be still discerned. Mulberries are extremely juicy and have a refreshing, subacid, saccharine taste, but they are devoid of the fine aroma that distinguishes many fruits of the order Rosaceae. |
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USES
It is grown for its leaves, which are famous as silkworm food, as the rubbery, milky sap is thought to give tenacity to silk filaments. the young shoots are edible. The leaves and root bark are diuretic, expectorant, and lower blood pressure. extracts decrease blood sugar and inhibit tumours in tests.
REMARK
Hallucinoges are present in the uncooked shoots and unripe fruit of white and black mulberry.
Black mulberries have delicious slightly acid flavour. They make an excellent dessert fruit and can be eaten in quantity. The fruit is juicy and refreshing, though it must be used as soon as it is ripe otherwise it will start to rot. The fruit falls from the tree as soon as it is fully ripe. It is best, therefore, to grow the tree in short grass to cushion the fall of the fruit but to still make it possible to find and harvest. The fruit can also be dried and ground into a powder. The fruit is up to 25mm in diameter.
A fibre used in weaving is obtained from the bark. A red-violet to dark purple dye is obtained from the fruit. A yellow-green dye is obtained from the leaves. Wood - used in joinery.
This plant variety is deciduous, ie it looses its leaves each year. The flowers are classified as monoecious. There have been no direct recordings of this plant providing food, shelter etc for native wildlife.
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