Red mulberry (Morus rubra), called moral in Spanish, is common throughout the Eastern United States. It is a fast growing native tree of valleys, flood plains, and low moist hillsides. "Mulberry Streets" all over the United States attest to mulberry being a common urban tree but it is mostly out of favor as a landscape tree because of the messy fruit.
The sweet red mulberry has never really taken off as a consumable fruit. They are delicious but very easily damaged during shipment. Fruit and new foliage eaten green can actually have hallucinogenic effects on the consumer and resulting in extreme digestive upset. Interestingly, red mulberry is a close relative of Cannabis sativa as well as osage-orange, and fig.
Photo by Steve Nix
Comments
My mom was raised in Mulberry, Arkansas. I wonder how many towns share that name?
To me the mulberry means loads of messy fruit on the ground that gets on the shoes and then into the house! The trees sure grow like crazy and might even give ailanthus a run for the money. The fruit, to me, tastes like a raspberry that didn’t make the grade – not very sweet, I’d call it a “blah-berry”
I like mulberries because they are so prolific. the fruit is mild, but tasty.
And then there is the Dr. Seuss classic: To Think I Saw It on Mulberry Street