White mulberry

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White mulberry staminate and pistillate catkins

White mulberry fruit

White mulberry pistillate

White mulberry leaf variation

White mulberry pistillate catkins

White mulberry leaf

White mulberry leaf

White mulberry catkins

White mulberry bud and leaf scar

White mulberry bark

White mulberry leaf under surface

White mulberry catkins

White mulberry bark

White mulberry leaves

White mulberry fruit

White mulberry

White mulberry fruit

Morphology

Trunk

Erect; branches unarmed; bark reddish brown or yellowish brown, furrows shallow, ridges long, narrow; wood white, soft.

Twigs

Green to reddish green or rust colored, flexible, smooth, usually sparsely pubescent, sometimes glabrous; leaf scars oval to round; sap milky; buds yellowish brown, ovoid, .16 to .24 inch, apex rounded to acute, scales glabrous or sparsely ciliate

Leaves

Alternate, simple, deciduous, both lobed and unlobed on same tree; petiole 1 to 2 inches, pubescent; blade ovate, 2.5 to 4 inches long, 1.2 to 2.4 inches wide; base heart-shaped, wedge-shaped or truncate; margins often irregularly lobed, coarsely toothed; tip short-pointed; lower surface glabrous or primary veins and vein axils pubescent; upper surface glabrous, glossy.

Flowers

Catkins; staminate catkins in leaf axils on new growth, drooping, 5-30-flowered, .4 to 2 inches; peduncles .12 to .8 inch; pedicels absent; pistillate catkins in leaf axils on new growth, drooping to spreading or erect, cylindric, 3-25-flowered, .2 to .6 inch; peduncles .08 to .24 inch, pedicels absent. Flowers unisexual, more or less radially symmetric; staminate: sepals 4-5, distinct, whitish green to greenish yellow, often tinged red, ovate to elliptic, .06 to .08 inch, adaxially pubescent, distally ciliate, apex acute; petals absent; stamens 4; pistillate: sepals 2-4, somewhat connate, calyx becoming fleshy in fruit, lobes green, sometimes tinged white or purple, ovate, distally ciliate, apex acute; petals absent; pistil 1, ovary superior, 2-locular; styles 2.

Fruit

May-June; multiple, white, red, or dark purple, .6 to 1 inch long, .3 to .4 inch thick, glabrous, fleshy; achene 1 per ovary, tan or light brown, flattened-ovoid, .08 to .1 inch.

Ecology

Habitat

Margins of woods, thickets, fencerows, and disturbed sites. Sometimes planted as shade trees.

Distribution

Throughout Kansas

Practical Information

Uses

The Cherokee used the fruit for food and took infusions of bark as a purgative and laxative.

Additional Notes