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Resources < Wildlife Habitats < Guide to Native Plants of Georgia for Wildlife < Morus rubra
Edible landscapes and personal gardens are becoming some of the most popular choices for American gardeners and nurserymen. Especially in light of the economic hardship, more and more Americans want to save on their food bills, benefit native wildlife, help the environment, and enjoy beauty and originality in their landscapes all at the same time.
The Red Mulberry is a superb native tree for those wishing to fulfill all of these purposes, or for those wishing for a taste of something new. Its marvelous, sweet berries resemble raspberries and blackberries, but without spines! They have been traditional sources of food for Native Americans as well as early English settlers, put to good use in jellies, jams, pies, and drinks. Farmers have valued Red Mulberries for fattening their hogs and feeding poultry. Just remember that the birds relish mulberries, too, and that it will most certainly become a race in mid-summer to see who gets them first!
Red Mulberry wood has been important, too, its historical use primarily as fence posts because of the durable heartwood. It was also used for farm implements, barrel making, furniture, and caskets.
Moraceae (Mulberry)
Medium-sized tree with a short trunk that branches low. Often multi-trunked, it forms a dense, thick crown. Bark is gray and irregular with long, scaly ridges. Leaves are alternate, simple, broadly ovate to roughly orbicular, 3-5” long, possess serrated margins, and are highly variable like Sassafras leaves (they may have no lobes, be mitten-shaped, or trident-shaped), have a rough texture above and are fuzzy below. Trees are dioecious, and both male and female trees have catkins for flowers in late spring. Fruits resemble blackberries, 1” long, are fleshy multiple drupes with a single small seed and mature in summer.
60 to 70 feet tall
Medium-sized tree
Rapid
Sun to partial shade, fruit yield and quality increase with sun.
When considering this plant as a source of fruit, it is important to realize that the limbs are susceptible to breakage. Therefore, this plant does best in areas with few winds or the presence of a wind break. Additionally, pruning the central leader helps the tree branch out laterally, developing strong horizontal limbs which can support the weight of a high fruit yield. This also increases the ease of picking the fruit.
The Red Mulberry is an excellent specimen plant, with interesting bark and foliage. However, to bear fruit, both a male and female must be present; planting 4-5 or more trees helps ensure you have one of both. Red Mulberry is a wonderful wildlife plant, too, and will harbor a variety of bird life.
With edible landscaping being all the rage, it makes an excellent native fruit tree and is best planted in stands or rows for this purpose to obtain adequate pollination, especially given the plants are dioecious (fruit will require both a male and female tree). It also makes an excellent shade tree or member of a woodland with other great native trees like Beech, Swamp Chestnut Oak, Red Maple, Sycamore, Willow, Sugarberry, Flowering Dogwood, Tuliptree, and Sweetgum.
The larvae of the Red-spotted Purple eat the foliage of Red Mulberries. It is a beautiful iridescent butterfly with streaks of orange and blue across its black wings.
The fruits are enjoyed by many game and non-game birds that widely spread the seeds, fox and gray squirrels, raccoons, and opossums.
Native to the eastern US from Florida up to Washington, D.C. and west past the Mississippi River to Texas and Minnesota. It favors moist, well-drained bottomlands, valleys, and some upland slopes.
Seed (sown immediately or stratified and planted in the spring), cuttings, and transplanting of root sprouts.
Text by Kevin Tarner, Georgia Wildlife Federation
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