MORUS
ALBA
Family – Moraceae
Scientific name – Morus alba
COMMON NAMES:
1) The Mulberry.
2) Tut.
3) Morus is the Latin name for the mulberry.
4) Alba in Latin means white and refers to the
fruit.
GENERAL INFORMATION:
1) This tree is a medium-sized deciduous tree,
bark of large trees dark greyish brown, rough, the fissures mainly vertical.
2) Leaves varying markedly in shape according
to the age of the tree, in young plants and on vigorous shoots of old plants
the leaves are usually deeply lobed, normally they are unlobed and 2-3 inches
long.
3) Flowers of this tree are unisexual, very
small, greenish, the sexes separated on different axes either on the same
branch or on the different branches or occasionally a tree produces only male
spikes or only female spikes.
4) Male spikes 0.5 -1.5 inches long, the
flowers not densely crowded.
5) Sepals 4, hairy, 1/10 inch long.
6) Female spikes shorter than the male, the
flowers crowded.
7) Sepals 4, not hairy or only slightly so on
the edges.
8) Fruit 0.5 – 1 inch long, sometimes white,
but more often red becoming black when ripe.
9) The fruit of the mulberry, using the term
in its popular sense, is not a true fruit like a mango in that in that firstly
it is produced by a cluster of flowers instead of one flower and secondly the edible
portion consists of the sepals, which became enlarge succulent.
10) The fruit strictly speaking is the portion
which would ordinarily be called a seed.
11) The mulberry is leafless during the cold
weather.
12) The flowers appear with the young leaves in
March, April and the fruit ripens about a month after flowering.
13) The twigs and leaves contain a milky juice
which is not very copious.
USES OF THE MULBERRY:
1) The leaves of the mulberry are used as food
for silk-worms.
2) The bark of small twigs contains a fibre
and strips of bark can be used for tying in place of string.
3) The wood is a fairly good substitute for
ash and is used for tool handless, bent wood frames of badminton and cheap
tennis rackets, hockey sticks and cricket stumps.
4) It is also used for shaft and tongas.
5) The fruit is edible but is not of good
quality.
HABITAT:
1) Native of China.
2) Now found wild in the less tropical
portions of India and has spread greatly with the extension of irrigation,
tending to come up freely under the shade of other trees and sometimes
replacing them in plantations.
3) In Bengal and other more tropical parts of
India this species is replaced by other mulberries some of which are indigenous.
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