Morus nigra L.

Horticultural & Botanical History

An important summer fruit, grown in England since the 16th century.  [JD, Don].  ‘The Mulberry Tree.  Morus nigra vulgaris.  This grows to be a tall tree, the leaves are a dark green, the flowers yellowish, and the berries when ripe a dark purple.  It grows in gardens, and the fruit is ripe in August and September.  The bark of the root is thought to warm and dry, opening obstructions of the liver and spleen, and helping the jaundice.  The unripe fruit is binding and drying, good in all kinds of fluxes, and inflammation of the mouth and throat.  The ripe fruit is cooling, good to allay the heat of burning fevers, and create an appetite.’  [Blackwell pl.126/1737].

‘The only variety cultivated in this country for its fruit is the Black Mulberry (Morus nigra), and it is only in the southern counties where it attains perfection. In the midlands it ripens its fruit when trained against a wall; but it is doubtful whether the crop so obtained is sufficient remuneration for the space the tree occupies.’ [Hogg – Fruit Manual p.123/1860].

History at Camden Park

Only listed as Morus nigra in the 1850 and 1857 catalogues [T.688/1850] although Mulberry is listed in all catalogues under Plants Bearing Fruit.

Notes

Morus nigra Thunb. (1784) = Broussonetia kaempferi Siebold