Japanese Mulberry - Morus australis Poir.
Moraceae - Mulberry or Fig Family
Mulberry (Morus alba) are principally known as the food source for the silkworm, Bombyx mori. Mulberries are edible and the bark is used in many types of specialized papers.
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Japanese Mulberry - Morus australis

Japanese Mulberry Tree
This Morton Arboretum Japanese Mulberry specimen is 36 years old, grown from seed.

Japanese Mulberry fruit and foliage
Japanese Mulberry fruit and foliage

Native: China and Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Myanmar (Burma).
Morus australis Poiret in Desrousseaux et al., Encycl. 4: 380. 1797.
鸡桑 ji sang

Japanese Mulberry grows as a small tree or shrub. Bark grayish brown. Winter buds conic to ovoid, large. Stipules linear-lanceolate. Petiole 1-1.5 cm, pubescent; leaf blade lanceolate to broadly ovate, simple or (2 or)3-5-lobed, lobes rounded to linear, 5-14 × 1-12 cm, abaxially sparsely covered with thick hairs, adaxially scabrous and densely covered with short hairs, base cuneate to cordate, margin serrate or entire and without subulate apiculum or seta, apex acute to caudate. Male catkins 1-1.5 cm, pubescent. Female inflorescences globose, ca. 1 cm, densely white pubescent; peduncle short. Male flowers: calyx lobes green, ovate; anther yellow. Female flowers: calyx lobes dark green, oblong; style long; stigma 2-branched, abaxially pubescent. Syncarp red to dark purple when mature, shortly cylindric, ca. 1 cm in diam. Fl. Mar-Apr, fr. Apr-May.

Japanese Mulberry in fall colors
Japanese Mulberry in fall colors

Japanese Mulberry yellow fall foliage

 Japanese Mulberry Bark
Japanese mulberry bark is used in the manufacture of highly-valued art paper and hinging paper for conservation mounting of artwork.

Found principally in limestone areas, forest margins, mountain slopes, fallow land, scrub in valleys; 500-2000 m. Anhui, Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Liaoning, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, SE Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Bhutan, India, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Nepal, Sikkim].

This species is closely related to Morus indica Linnaeus, and some authors have considered them conspecific. Varieties have been recognized on the basis of differences in leaf form, particularly the degree of division. Deeply divided leaves are characteristic of juvenile growth in a number of genera in the Moraceae and other families, and it does not seem advisable to give such material formal names, at least without more detailed population studies.

The bark fibers are used for making paper and the fruit is edible.  [2]
 

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References
  1. USDA Forest Service, Forest Health Staff, Newtown Square, PA
  2. Flora of China, Morus australis

 

              
 
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