Morus alba

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

White Mulberry
White Mulberry leaves and fruit
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae Division: Magnoliophyta Class: Magnoliopsida Order: Rosales Family: Moraceae Genus: Morus Species: M. alba
Binomial name
Morus alba L.

The White Mulberry (Morus alba) is a short-lived, fast-growing, small to medium sized tree to 10–20 m tall, native to northern China, and widely cultivated elsewhere.^[1][2] It is also known as Tuta in Sanskrit and Tuti in Marathi.

On young, vigorous shoots, the leaves may be up to 30 cm long, and deeply and intricately lobed, with the lobes rounded. On older trees, the leaves are generally 5–15 cm long, unlobed, cordate at the base and rounded to acuminate at the tip, and serrated on the margins. The leaves are usually deciduous in winter, but trees grown in tropical regions can be evergreen. The flowers are single-sex catkins, with catkins of both sexes being present on each tree; male catkins are 2–3.5 cm long, and female catkins 1–2 cm long. The fruit is 1–2.5 cm long; in the species in the wild it is deep purple, but in many cultivated plants it varies from white to pink; it is sweet but insipid, unlike the more intense flavour of the Red Mulberry and Black Mulberry. The seeds are widely dispersed by birds, which eat the fruit and excrete the seeds.^[1][2][3]

The White Mulberry is scientifically notable for the rapid plant movement of the pollen release from its catkins. The flowers fire pollen into the air by rapidly (25 µs) releasing stored elastic energy in the stamens. The resulting movement is in excess of half the speed of sound, making it the fastest known movement in the plant kingdom.^[4]

Contents 1 Cultivation and uses 2 Ethnomedical Uses 3 In culture 4 References

[edit] Cultivation and uses

White Mulberry leaves are the preferred feedstock for silkworms, and are also cut for food for livestock (cattle, goats, etc.) in areas where dry seasons restrict the availability of ground vegetation. The fruit are also eaten, often dried or made into wine.^[2][3]

Cultivation of White Mulberry for silkworms began over 4,000 years ago in China, with 6,260 km² currently devoted to the species in China.^[2]

The species is now extensively planted and widely naturalised throughout the warm temperate world. It has been grown widely from India (with 2,820 km²^[2]) west through Afghanistan and Iran to southern Europe for over a thousand years for leaves to feed silkworms.^[3]

More recently, it has become widely naturalised in urban areas of eastern North America, where it hybridises readily with the locally native Red Mulberry (Morus rubra). There is now serious concern for the long-term genetic viability of Red Mulberry because of extensive hybridisation in some areas.^[5] As a result, it is now listed as an invasive plant in parts of North America.^[6]

A weeping cultivar of White Mulberry Morus alba 'Pendula' is a popular ornamental plant. Weeping plants are propagated by grafting the weeping cultivar onto a non-weeping rootstock.

[edit] Ethnomedical Uses

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the fruit is used to treat prematurely grey hair, to "tonify" the blood, and treat constipation and diabetes.^{[citation needed]}

The bark is used to treat cough, wheezing, edema, and to promote urination.

It is also used to treat fever, headache, red dry and sore eyes, as well as cough.

[edit] In culture

An etiological Babylonian story that was later incorporated into Greek and Roman mythology attributes the reddish purple color of the white mulberry (Morus alba) fruits to the tragic deaths of the lovers Pyramus and Thisbe.

The "White Mulberry Tree" is title of a crucial chapter in Willa Cather's 1913 novel, O, Pioneers, in which the two forbidden lovers are killed. A reference to the story of Pyramus and Thisbe.

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b} Flora of China: Morus alba
2. ^ ^{a b c d e} Suttie, J. M. (undated). FAO Report: Morus alba L.
3. ^ ^{a b c} Bean, W. J. (1978). Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles. John Murray ISBN 0-7195-2256-0.
4. ^ Taylor, P. E., Card, G., House, J., Dickinson, M. H., & Flagan, R. C. (2006). High-speed pollen release in the white mulberry tree, Morus alba L. Sexual Plant Reproduction 19 (1): 19-24 pdf file
5. ^ Burgess, K. S., Morgan, M., Deverno, L., & Husband, B. C. (2005). Asymmetrical introgression between two Morus species (M. alba, M. rubra) that differ in abundance. Molec. Ecol. 14: 3471–3483 pdf file.
6. ^ USDA Plants Profile: Morus alba