White mulberry

White mulberry (Morus alba) is a small tree or large shrub of the mulberry family (Moraceae), 8–15 m tall, with a broad rounded crown and grey bark that cracks lengthwise. The leaves are alternate, ovate to heart-shaped, 5–15 cm long, with toothed margins and glossy upper surfaces; they are highly variable, deeply lobed on young plants and vigorous shoots. The plants are monoecious, with small green male and female flowers borne in catkin-like clusters in the leaf axils. The fruit is a multiple fruit (a mulberry) 1–3 cm long made of many small drupelets, green when young and dark reddish-purple or creamy white when ripe, sweet and edible. The tree is the main food plant of the silkworm, the source of silk.

White mulberry is native to China, cultivated for thousands of years to rear silkworms for silk and later spread across Asia and many temperate and subtropical regions. In Vietnam it is grown in many localities, notably in riverine mulberry-growing areas. The ripe fruit is eaten fresh, made into jam or macerated in alcohol. In traditional medicine the fruit (sangshen) tonifies the kidney, nourishes the blood and darkens the hair; the leaves (sangye) clear heat and brighten the eyes and are used for colds and coughs; the root bark (sangbaipi) treats coughs, asthma and promotes urination. The wood is used for light crafts and the branches for fuel.