VALUE AND USE
SPECIES: Morus rubra | Red Mulberry 



WOOD PRODUCTS VALUE : 
Red mulberry wood is light, soft, weak, close-grained, and durable [37].
It is of little commercial importance.  Current and past uses include
fenceposts, farm implements, cooperage, furniture, interior finish, and
caskets [19,37].


IMPORTANCE TO LIVESTOCK AND WILDLIFE : 
Many species of birds and small mammals eat the fruits of red mulberry
[19].  Bird consumers include wood ducks [1], bluebirds, indigo
buntings, gray catbirds, eastern kingbirds, towhees, orchard orioles,
brown thrashers, summer tanagers, vireos, red-cockaded woodpeckers [13],
red-bellied woodpeckers, great crested flycatchers [11], and Lewis'
woodpeckers [16].  Other consumers include opossums, raccoons, fox
squirrels, and gray squirrels [19].  The twigs and foliage are browsed
by white-tailed deer.  Beavers consume red mulberry bark [13].


PALATABILITY : 
NO-ENTRY


NUTRITIONAL VALUE : 
Each red mulberry fruit contains a number of seeds.  The energy value of
the seeds of red mulberry averages 1,242.60 Joules per fruit.  The
average energy value of the fleshy part of red mulberry fruits is
reported as 2,043.88 Joules per fruit [33].


COVER VALUE : 
NO-ENTRY


VALUE FOR REHABILITATION OF DISTURBED SITES : 
Red mulberry is not noted as a soil stabilizer due to its shallow roots
[19].  However, mine sites that have been reclaimed (usually planted to
grasses and herbaceous perennials) are occasionally colonized by red
mulberry.  It may become dominant on these sites.  Red mulberry
colonization on unreclaimed mine sites has not been reported [12].


OTHER USES AND VALUES : 
Red mulberry is planted for its fruit and as an ornamental [37].  The
fruit is used to make jams, jellies, pies, and beverages.  The fruits
have also been used as feed for hogs and chickens [19].  Native
Americans used the fibrous bark to make cloth [37].



MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS : 
Red mulberry is becoming increasingly scarce in the central portions
of its range, possibly due to a bacterial disease [19].

Red mulberry is occasionally present in the hardwood understory of
pine-hardwood stands in the Gulf Coastal Plain.  If management goals
include reduction of hardwood competition, then red mulberry may be one
of the species that needs to be controlled [31].

Stem injection of red mulberry trees with 2,4-D plus picloram and with
glyphosate results in 100 percent topkill [22].

Leaf pathogens include Cercospora, Mycosphaerella mori, and Pseudomonas
mori, all of which cause leaf spots.  Red mulberry is also susceptible to
witches broom (Microstoma juglandis) [19].

Insects feeding on red mulberry leaves include the European fruit
lecanium, Comstoch mealy bug, and cottony maple scale.  Twigs and stems
are attacked by the American plum borer and the mulberry borer [19].
Root-knot nematodes sometimes attack the roots of seedlings and older
trees [37].

Red mulberry is rated moderately tolerant of flooding; it will withstand
inundation for a complete growing season, but is killed by inundation
over two growing seasons [19].

Related categories for Species: Morus rubra | Red Mulberry