Morus alba

Species: Morus alba

English Name: White Mulberry

Chinese Name: 桑

Family: Moraceae

Description:

Shrubs or trees, 3-10 m tall. Bark gray, shallowly furrowed. Branches finely hairy. Winter buds reddish brown, ovoid, finely hairy. Stipules lanceolate, 2-3.5 cm, densely covered with short pubescence. Petiole 1.5-5.5 cm, pubescent; leaf blade ovate to broadly ovate, irregularly lobed, 5-30 × 5-12 cm, abaxially sparsely pubescent along midvein or in tufts in axil of midvein and primary lateral veins, adaxially bright green and glabrous, base rounded to ± cordate, margin coarsely serrate to crenate, apex acute, acuminate, or obtuse. Male catkins pendulous, 2-3.5 cm, densely white hairy. Female catkins 1-2 cm, pubescent; peduncle 5-10 mm, pubescent. Male flowers: calyx lobes pale green, broadly elliptic; filaments inflexed in bud; anthers 2-loculed, globose to reniform. Female flowers: sessile; calyx lobes ovoid, ± compressed, with marginal hairs; ovary sessile, ovoid; style absent; stigmas with mastoidlike protuberance, branches divergent, papillose. Syncarp red when immature, blackish purple, purple, or greenish white when mature, ovoid, ellipsoid, or cylindric, 1-2.5 cm. Fl. Apr-May, fr. May-Aug.

Photos used under a Creative Commons license

References:

– Wu ZY, Raven PH, Hong DY (eds) (2003). Flora of China, Volume 5: Ulmaceae through Basellaceae. Science Press, Beijing, and Missouri Bot Garden Press, St. Louis