TreeRM

White mulberry

Morus alba · Moraceae · also Common mulberry, Silkworm mulberry

A fast, rounded, short-trunked tree with glossy, variably lobed leaves and sweet white-to-purple blackberry-like fruit in early summer on female trees. Brought over for a silk industry that never took off, it now grows along fences, alleys and roadsides across North America, stains everything beneath female trees and hybridizes with the native red mulberry, threatening its genetic identity. Its wind-blown pollen is a major hay-fever trigger in western cities, some of which have banned it. Fruitless male cultivars are sold as shade trees.

Broadleaf, drops leavesFast growingSun or part shadeLow water
White mulberry
Emőke Dénes, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Where it stands

Native

  • 🇨🇳 China · Native to China (and India).source

Adapted

  • 🇺🇸 United States · Naturalized across most of the US; fruitless male cultivars are still sold as shade trees in the Southwest.source

Invasive

  • 🇨🇦 ON, Canada · Listed as an invasive plant by the Ontario Invasive Plant Council.source
  • 🇺🇸 PA, United States · On Pennsylvania DCNR's invasive plant fact sheet list.source
  • 🇺🇸 VA, United States · Virginia DCR Invasive Plant Species List, Low invasiveness rank.source

Prohibited

  • 🇺🇸 IN, United States · Regulated under Indiana's Terrestrial Plant Rule: illegal to sell, distribute or transport.source
  • 🇺🇸 WI, United States · Restricted under Wisconsin NR 40 (male cultivars exempt).source

Care

Not recommended where listed. Existing trees: prune in winter, expect messy fruit, shallow roots and suckering, and pull seedlings by hand since herbicides work poorly on them. Bacterial blight and cankers are the main diseases.

Benefits

Fast canopyShadeEdibleBirdsDrought tolerant

Good for

Yard shadeFood

Watch out for

Invasive elsewhereMessy fruitAllergenic pollenSurface rootsWeak wood