Morus nigra Seeds | Black Mulberry
LATIN NAME: Morus nigra
COMMON NAME: Black Mulberry
Plant Profile
Morus nigra is the mulberry of the fruit garden, grown for berries that are large, dark purple and sharply sweet, and for a tree that is slower and smaller than the white mulberry. The leaves are thick, rough and heart-shaped, not lobed, and the bark is brown and scaly. It reaches ten metres with a wide, dense crown that casts a heavy shade.
The species is native to the mountains of south-western Asia, probably Iran and Armenia, and it has been grown for its fruit since antiquity. It was planted across Europe for the table and for jam, and old trees in monastery gardens and in cottage orchards are often several hundred years old. The fruit ripens over several weeks in summer and stains everything it touches.
Science & Biotechnology
The black mulberry is a polyploid, with a high chromosome number, and it is thought to be an ancient hybrid rather than a wild species. It is slow-growing and long-lived, and it is much less hardy than the white mulberry, which is why it is grown in warm gardens and against walls in cool ones.
The fruit is a multiple fruit, formed from the fused flowers of an inflorescence, and each little drupelet carries a seed. The colour comes from anthocyanins, which are also the reason the fruit stains hands and paving. The leaf is not used for silk, since it is tough and the silkworm prefers the white species.
Uses & Benefits
The fruit is eaten fresh, made into jam, syrup and a dark liqueur, and used as a filling for pastries. The timber is hard, golden-brown and durable, and it is used for furniture, for barrels and for turned work, though the tree is too slow to be a timber crop.
In traditional medicine the fruit is used as a laxative and the bark as a purgative, and the leaf is used for a gargle. The tree is grown as an ornamental for the shade and for the fruit, and it is planted in orchards and in gardens where a long-lived tree is wanted. In Iran the dried fruit is used in a sour-sweet stew with lamb.
Growing from Seed
Seed is slow and variable, and named forms are propagated by cuttings or by grafting onto white mulberry rootstock. Take hardwood cuttings in winter, or graft in late winter, since the tree does not come true from seed.
The tree wants full sun and a deep, well-drained soil, and it is hardy to about minus fifteen when mature, though the flowers are damaged by late frost. Plant it where the fruit will not stain a path or a car, and prune it only lightly, since it bleeds in spring and resents hard cutting. The fruit falls over several weeks, so pick it daily.
Our Take
The best-tasting mulberry and a tree that outlives its planter, with fruit that stains everything within reach. Plant it away from paving.
Related Reading
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