Flora of North America species comparison

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Moraceae

Morus

mulberry family

mulberry, mûrier
Habit Trees, shrubs, herbs, or vines, deciduous or evergreen, frequently with milky sap. Trees or shrubs, deciduous; sap milky.
Leaves

blade: margins entire, toothed, or lobed;

venation pinnate or with 3-5 basal palmate veins;

cystoliths often present in epidermal cells.

blade ovate to broadly ovate, margins entire or lobed, dentate;

venation nearly palmate.
Inflorescences

racemes, cymes, or capitula.

pedunculate catkins, erect or pendent, cylindric.
Flowers

unisexual, staminate and pistillate on same or different plants, small, occasionally on flattened torus, more often enclosed within fleshy, flask-shaped receptacle (syconium);

sepals 2-6, distinct or partly connate (vestigial in Brosimum).

staminate and pistillate on same or different plants.
Staminate flowers

stamens equal in number to sepals or calyx lobes and opposite them, straight or inflexed;

anthers 1-2-locular.

sepals 4 (4-5 in M. alba);

stamens 4, inflexed.
Pistillate flowers

sepals or calyx lobes 4, ± connate;

pistils 1, 1-2-carpellate;

ovary 1, superior or inferior, 1(-2)-locular;

ovules 1 per locule;

styles or style branches 1-2;

stigmas 1-2, entire.

sepals 4, green, of 2 sizes, ciliate;

ovary superior, 2-locular;

style 2-branched, branches linear.
Fruits

multiple (syncarps);

individual achenes or drupelets partly or completely enclosed by enlarged common receptacle or by individual calyces.

Terminal

buds surrounded by bud scales.
Syncarps

short-cylindric; each achene enclosed by its enlarged, fleshy calyx.
x

= 14.

Moraceae

Morus
Distribution
Widespread in tropical and subtropical regions; less common in temperate areas
[BONAP county map]
from USDA
North America; Widespread in temperate and tropical regions; Europe; and Asia
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Genera ca. 40, species nearly 1100 (7 genera, 18 species in the flora).

Members of the large and diverse mulberry family are mainly woody and tropical; they are most abundant in Asia. The largest genera are Ficus, with approximately 750 species, and Dorstenia, with about 170 species. The family includes important timber trees, e.g., Chlorophora excelsa (Welwitsch) Bentham, iroko, from tropical Africa; Brosimum guianense (Aublet) Huber, letterwood, snakewood; and Ficus spp. Genera with species bearing edible fruits include the mulberries, Morus spp.; breadfruit and jackfruit, e.g., Artocarpus altilis (Parkinson) Fosberg and A. heterophyllus Lamarck; and figs, Ficus spp. Several species of Ficus are commonly cultivated in subtropical regions of the United States. These include F. carica Linnaeus; F. elastica Roxburgh ex Hornemann, India rubber plant; F. benghalensis Linnaeus, banyan; F. benjamina Linnaeus, weeping fig; F. pumila Linnaeus, creeping fig; and F. microcarpa Linnaeus f., Indian-laurel.

Rubber plants and weeping figs are commonly sold as houseplants. Economically, the most important species are those associated with the silk trade. Morus alba Linnaeus, M. indica Linnaeus, M. laevigata Wallis, and M. serrata Roxburgh, cultivated in many temperate and tropical countries, provide the natural food source for the silkworm, Bombyx mori Linnaeus.

Cudrania tricuspidata (Carrière) Bureau ex Lavallée, used as a food source for silkworms when Morus spp. are in short supply, is cultivated in North America as a hedge plant. The fruit is edible. Native to Korea and China, C. tricuspidata is known from a collection made in 1956 in McIntosh County, Georgia (S. B. Jones Jr. and N. C. Coile 1988), and it is naturalized in Orange County, North Carolina (R. D. Whetstone, pers. comm.).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Species 10 (3 in the flora).

Morus nigra Linnaeus has been reported in floras by various authors (J. K. Small 1903, 1933; R. W. Long and O. Lakela 1971), apparently based on dark-fruited M. alba. It is native to Asia, commonly cultivated in Europe for its fruit, and locally naturalized in southern Europe. Occasionally cultivated in North America, it is not known to be naturalized. Because of the similarity to and confusion with M. alba, some American authors place it in synonymy with that species.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Herbs.
→ 2
1. Trees, shrubs, or vines.
→ 3
2. Plants lacking evident aerial stems, rhizomatous, perennial; inflorescences axillary, long-pedunculate.
Dorstenia
2. Plants caulescent, taprooted, annual; inflorescences axillary, short-pedunculate.
Fatoua
3. Flowers all borne on inside of syconium; terminal vegetative bud surrounded by pair of stipules.
Ficus
3. Flowers not borne on inside of syconium or only a solitary female flower immersed in receptacle; terminal vegetative bud scaly, not surrounded by pair of stipules.
→ 4
4. Margins of leaf blade toothed, often lobed; venation appearing palmate, or weakly 3-veined from base.
→ 5
4. Margins of leaf blade entire, never lobed; venation pinnate.
→ 6
5. Pistillate inflorescences globose; styles unbranched.
Broussonetia
5. Pistillate inflorescences cylindric; styles 2-branched.
Morus
6. Leaf blade ovate to lanceolate, not leathery; trees deciduous; syncarps 8-12 cm diam.
Maclura
6. Leaf blade oblong, leathery; trees evergreen; syncarps 1.5 cm diam.
Brosimum
1. Mature leaf blade less than 7 cm, abaxially harshly scabrous or pubescent, adaxially harshly scabrous; petiole to 1.5 cm.
M. microphylla
1. Mature leaf blade usually more than 8 cm, adaxially slightly if at all scabrous; petiole 2 cm or more.
→ 2
2. Leaf blade abaxially glabrous or with pubescence only along major veins or in tufts in axils of principal lateral veins and midribs, adaxially glabrous to sparsely pubescent.
M. alba
2. Leaf blade abaxially pubescent or puberulent, adaxially with short, stiff, antrorsely appressed trichomes, usually scabrous.
M. rubra
Source FNA vol. 3, p. 388. Treatment author: Richard P. Wunderlin. FNA vol. 3. Treatment author: Richard P. Wunderlin.
Parent taxa Moraceae
Subordinate taxa
Brosimum, Broussonetia, Dorstenia, Fatoua, Ficus, Maclura, Morus
M. alba, M. microphylla, M. rubra
Name authority Link Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 986. 175: Gen. Pl. ed. 5, 424. (1754)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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