Red Mulberry

Morus rubra

Size: 3 & 7 Gallon Availability
*AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST*

Tree
Max size: 50’ tall x 30’ wide
Average size: 35′ tall x 25′ wide

Usually Moist, Moist to Dry
Loam, Sand
Sun, Part Shade
No Salt Tolerance

AKA: Common Mulberry, Bulberry, Virginia Mulberry

This deciduous tree has a yellow fall color and blooms with white flowers in mid to late spring. Its edible fruits ripen in late summer to early fall. The fallen fruit can be messy, but is popular with birds, mammals, and box turtles. If this tree needs to be pruned, it’s important to do so while it is dormant, and you should try to avoid making large cuts on healthy branches.

The wood is useful for fence posts, bows, and other outdoor woodwork. Indigenous populations would dry the berries to make raisins, as well as adding them to cornmeal; European colonizers began using them for jelly, jam, pies, and other sweets. Various extracts are considered antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antipyretic, diuretic, hypotensive, immunomodulating, and sedative. Timucua used the trees to make dye: various tones of golden yellows, bronze, olive, and browns from bark and wood; tans and yellow-greens from branches with the addition of alum mordant; gray-lavender to purple from the berries with the addition of alum. PLEASE NOTE: unripe fruits and sap from the plant can cause gastrointestinal distress and skin rash in some people.