Morus (plant) - Uses and Cultivation

Uses and Cultivation

The ripe fruit is edible and is widely used in pies, tarts, wines, cordials and tea. The fruit of the black mulberry, native to southwest Asia, and the red mulberry, native to eastern North America, have the strongest flavor. The fruit of the white mulberry, an east Asian species which is extensively naturalized in urban regions of eastern North America, has a different flavor, sometimes characterized as insipid. The mature plant contains significant amounts of resveratrol, particularly in stem bark. The fruit and leaves are sold in various forms as nutritional supplements. Unripe fruit and green parts of the plant have a white sap that may be toxic, stimulating, or mildly hallucinogenic.

Black, red, and white mulberry are widespread in southern Europe, the Middle East, northern Africa and Indian Subcontinent where the tree and the fruit have names under regional dialects. Jams and sherbets are often made from the fruit in this region. Black mulberry was imported to Britain in the 17th century in the hope that it would be useful in the cultivation of silkworms. It was much used in folk medicine, especially in the treatment of ringworm. In USA, black mulberry was imported from Pakistan (hence named Pakistan black mulberry in USA). Mulberries are also widespread in Greece, particularly in the Peloponnese, which in the Middle Ages was known as Morea (Greek: Μωριάς, Morias), deriving from the Greek word for the tree (Greek: Μουριά, Μouria).

Mulberries can be grown from seed, and this is often advised as seedling-grown trees are generally of better shape and health. But they are most often planted from large cuttings which root readily. The mulberry plants which are allowed to grow tall with a crown height of 5 - 6 feet from the ground level having stem girth of 4 - 5 inches or more is called tree mulberry. They are specially raised with the help of well grown saplings of 8 - 10 months old with any of the varieties recommended for rain-fed areas like S-13 (for red loamy soil) or S-34 (black cotton soil) which are tolerant to drought or soil-moisture stress conditions. Usually the plantation is raised as block plantation with a spacing of 6 feet x 6 feet or 8 feet x 8 feet as plant to plant and row to row distance. The plants are usually pruned once a year during monsoon (July - August) at a height of 5 - 6 feet from the ground level and allowed to grow with maximum of 8 - 10 shoots at crown. The leaf is harvested 3-4 times in a year by leaf picking method under rain-fed or semi-arid conditions depending on the monsoon.

The tree branches pruned during the fall season (after the leaves have fallen) are cut and used to make durable baskets supporting agriculture and animal husbandry.

Some North American cities have banned the planting of mulberries because of the large amounts of pollen they produce, posing a potential health hazard for some pollen allergy sufferers.