A few springs ago, my sons and their friends came home from a neighborhood walk with purple-stained fingers and faces. Assuming the worst, I had them take me to the source to make sure it wasn’t poisonous. Turns out we have native red mulberry trees throughout our urban Park Circle neighborhood. Ever since that spring, we look forward to our mulberry-foraging adventures. We always have grandiose ideas of making jam and pie, but instead we just eat them right off the trees with none left to spare.
In South Carolina, we have two species of mulberry trees, the native red mulberry, Morus rubra, and the cultivated white mulberry, Morus alba. The female trees of both varieties produce delectable fruit and have edible leaves (better as a tea than raw) found all throughout the Southeast and parts of the Midwest.
Interestingly, mulberry trees grow three unique shapes of leaves on the same plant: entire (a term for a no-lobe shaped leaf), mitten and lobed, all with serrations. The only other type of plant found here with multiple leaves is the sassafras tree, whose crushed leaves smell like root beer).
Red mulberry tree leaves have a rough top side with hair-like features on the underside. They thrive in partial shade in rich soil. On the other hand, white mulberry trees have shiny leaves and no hair-like features and thrive in poor soil often found in abandoned lots and sides of the road. Red mulberries produce purple-to-black fruit, whereas white mulberries produce white-to-red-to-purple fruit.
Good for you
Mulberries are rich in fiber, vitamins K and C, iron, protein, calcium, magnesium and cancer-fighting antioxidants. With these berries being more nutritious than blueberries and raspberries, you’d think we’d have farms full of mulberry trees. In fact, South Carolina used to plant thousands of acres of mulberries until the late 1800s, and some are trying to bring the trees back into popularity.
Most see mulberry trees and their purple-staining fruit as a nuisance, but in the 19th century, their fruit was highly sought-after all throughout the country for many reasons. The white mulberry (native to China) was brought to America because silkworms prefer their fruits. Entrepreneurs hoped to establish silk production in America, but the costs were high and the industry failed. The trees, however, continued to spread because birds and other animals enjoyed the fruit.
Before commercial farms switched to cheap all-grain feed for livestock, mulberries were a prized food for hogs and chickens as were native persimmon and nut trees. It is said that mulberries gave a sultry sweetness to their meat.
Around 1813, a man in Columbia named Nicholas Herbemont crossed our native mulberry with the white mulberry to produce a tree named Hick’s ever-bearing mulberry variety. Herbemont wanted to create a mulberry that would produce fruit for a longer period of time and that was more useful to livestock production. Herbemont owned acres in the heart of Columbia, where the University of Columbia’s new law school now is. Not only did he cross the plants there, but he also housed many fruit-bearing trees and roses his wife cultivated. The Columbia hilltop was considered a horticulture paradise at that time.
Although mulberry trees are now something most try to get rid of, there is a push to bring them back into backyard gardens and onto farms where heritage livestock can be raised on heirloom mulberries. Until they make a comeback or until you plant one of your own (don’t plant it where the purple fruit stains will make you rethink your choices), do some urban foraging and enjoy the fruits of your bounty.
Toni Reale is the owner of Roadside Blooms, a unique plant, flower, crystal and fossil shop in Park Circle in North Charleston. It moves to a new location in June, 4991 Durant Ave., North Charleston. More: roadsidebloomsshop.com
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