Sang Shen

Morus alba, the white mulberry, is a fast-growing deciduous tree in the family Moraceae, native to north-central China and now cultivated and naturalized across much of the temperate world for its leaves, traditionally used to feed silkworms, and for its sweet edible fruit. Mature trees reach 10-20 m in height with a broad, dense, rounded crown and orange-brown, deeply fissured bark on older trunks. The alternate leaves are extremely variable, ovate to broadly ovate or palmately lobed, 5-15 cm long, with serrate margins, a glossy bright-green surface, and a heart-shaped to truncate base. The plant is usually dioecious, bearing small, pale green, wind-pollinated male and female flowers in separate axillary catkins in spring. The fruit, properly a syncarp of small drupelets fused on the persistent fleshy perianth, is cylindrical to ovoid, 1-2.5 cm long, and ripens from white through pink to dark purple-black or remains white depending on cultivar, with a sweet, mild flavor.