Moral

The Morus Rubra is commonly known as Moral, Mulberry, as well as Red Mulberry

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Growing Regions

The native range of red mulberry extends from Massachussetts and southern Vermont west through the southern half of New York to extreme southwestern Ontario, southern Michigan, central Wisconsin and southeastern Minnesota; south to Iowa, southeastern Nebraska, central Kansas, western Oklahoma, and central Texas; and east to southern Florida [19,20].

     

General Information

The currently accepted scientific name for red mulberry is Morus rubra L. [9,20]. A geographic strain known as the Lampasas mulberry occurs in Texas [32]. Accepted varieties include the following: Morus rubra var. rubra Morus rubra var. tomentosa (Raf) Bur. (woolly red mulberry) [37]. Red mulberry hybridizes with white mulberry (M. alba), an exotic species which has naturalized in the eastern United States [19].

Red mulberry usually occurs as scattered individuals in floodplain or
cove forests, where it is often an understory tree [19].
  
The most common tree associates of red mulberry not previously mentioned
include American sycamore (Platanus occidentalis) and in southern part
of its range, silver maple (Acer saccharinum).  In the northern areas
associates include boxelder (A. negundo) and white ash (Fraxinus
americana) [19].

Associated understory species include roughleaf dogwood (Cornus
drummondii), flowering dogwood (C. florida), swamp-privet (Forestiera
acuminata), Nuttall oak (Quercus nuttallii), hawthorn (Crataegus spp.),
and possumhaw (Ilex decidua).  Associated herbs include pokeweed
(Phytolacca americana), stinging nettle (Urtica dioica), eastern
poison-ivy (Toxicodendron radicans), and greenbriers (Smilax spp.) [19].

• More Moral Information

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