White Mulberry
| White Mulberry | ||||||||||||||
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 White Mulberry leaves and fruit | ||||||||||||||
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| Binomial name | ||||||||||||||
| Morus alba L. | ||||||||||||||
The White Mulberry (Morus alba) is a short-lived, fast-growing, small to medium sized tree to 15-20 m tall, native to eastern Asia.
On young, vigorous shoots, White Mulberry leaves may be up to 20 cm long, and deeply and intricately lobed, with the lobes rounded. On older trees, the leaves are generally 8-15 cm long, entire, cordate at the base and acuminate at the tip, and serrated on the margin. The fruit is insipid, unlike the much more intense flavour of the Red Mulberry and Black Mulberry. The fruit varies from white to pink in colour in many cultivated plants, but the natural fruit colour of the species in the wild is deep purple.
The White Mulberry is scientifically notable for its rapid plant movement. The flowers fire pollen into the air by rapidly (25 μs) releasing stored elastic energy in the stamen. The resulting movement is in excess of half the speed of sound, making it the fastest movement in the plant kingdom.
Cultivation and uses
The leaves are the preferred feedstock for silkworms, and are also cut for food for livestock (cattle, goats, etc.) in areas where dry seasons restrict the availability of ground vegetation.
White Mulberry is extensively planted throughout the warm temperate Northern Hemisphere, and is naturalised in urban areas of the United States, where it hybridises to some extent with the U.S. native Red Mulberry (Morus rubra). In fact, some authorities worry about the long-term genetic viability of Red Mulberry because of extensive hybridization in some areas. The white mulberry is widely dispersed by birds, which eat the fruit and excrete the seeds, and is considered an invasive plant in parts of North America.[1] The white mulberry is also grown ornamentally in Afghanistan and for its berries, which are often eaten dried.
A weeping cultivar of White Mulberry Morus alba 'Pendula' is a popular ornamental plant. Weeping plants are propagated by grafting the weeping cultivar onto a non weeping rootstock.
Ethnomedical Uses
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, Morus Alba fruit is used to treat prematurely grey hair, to "tonify" the blood, treat constipation, and diabetes.
The bark is used to treat cough, wheezing, edema, and to promote urination.
It is also used to treat fever, headache, red dry and sore eyes, as well as cough.
