Mulberry is any of a group of ornamental trees and shrubs that have small, round, sweet fruits. The fruits, also called mulberries, are white, purple, or red. Each consists of a cluster of tiny one-seeded fruits. Mulberry flowers are greenish white and grow in cylindrical clusters that hang from stalks on the branches. The plants have oval or heart-shaped ridged leaves.
White mulberries play an important role in the silk industry. Their leaves provide food for silkworms, from whose cocoons silk fabrics are woven. The chief kind of white mulberry used as silkworm food is the silkworm mulberry. Most silkworm mulberries come from China. Russian mulberries, another important type of white mulberries, are the most widely planted mulberries in the United States. They are sturdy shrubs that grow well as hedges, and so growers use them as windbreaks.
Red mulberries, also called American mulberries, grow wild throughout most of the eastern and central sections of the United States. Farmers feed their fruit to hogs and poultry. Black mulberries are grown throughout Europe for their juicy, crimson-black fruit. The fruit is eaten fresh and used in making preserves and wines.
