# White mulberry (Morus alba)

> 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.

Source: https://treerm.org/trees/morus-alba · Updated 2026-11-08 · License CC BY 4.0

## Facts

- Also called: Common mulberry, Silkworm mulberry
- Family: Moraceae
- Type: Broadleaf, drops leaves
- Mature height: 12 m; spread 12 m
- Growth: Fast growing; lives about 75 years
- USDA hardiness zones: 4 to 8
- Light: Sun or part shade
- Water: Low water
- Soil: Grows in almost any soil including alkaline, compacted and dry sites; best in rich, moist, well-drained ground
- Native range: Native to China and India, spread worldwide with silk production.

**Benefits:** Fast canopy, Shade, Edible, Birds, Drought tolerant

**Good for:** Yard shade, Food

**Watch out for:** Invasive elsewhere, Messy fruit, Allergenic pollen, Surface roots, Weak wood

## 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.

## Where it stands

- **Native:** China (Native to China (and India).)
- **Adapted:** United States (Naturalized across most of the US; fruitless male cultivars are still sold as shade trees in the Southwest.)
- **Invasive:** ON, Canada (Listed as an invasive plant by the Ontario Invasive Plant Council.); PA, United States (On Pennsylvania DCNR's invasive plant fact sheet list.); VA, United States (Virginia DCR Invasive Plant Species List, Low invasiveness rank.)
- **Prohibited:** IN, United States (Regulated under Indiana's Terrestrial Plant Rule: illegal to sell, distribute or transport.); WI, United States (Restricted under Wisconsin NR 40 (male cultivars exempt).)

## Sources

- https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/morus-alba/
- https://plants.usda.gov/plant-profile/MOAL
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morus_alba
- https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/topic/Invasives/RegulatedSpecies
- https://www.in.gov/dnr/rules-and-regulations/invasive-species/terrestrial-invasive-species-plants
- https://www.pa.gov/en/agencies/dcnr/conservation/wild-plants/invasive-plants/invasive-plant-fact-sheets.html
- https://www.dcr.virginia.gov/natural-heritage/document/nh-invasive-plant-list-2024.pdf
- https://www.ontarioinvasiveplants.ca/invasive-plants/species/white-mulberry/