Morus Alba

Morus alba (Latin name: Morus alba L.) is a deciduous tree or shrub in the family Moraceae, genus Morus, with a height of up to 15 metres. 

Morus alba (Latin name: Morus alba L.) is a deciduous tree or shrub in the family Moraceae, genus Morus, with a height of up to 15 metres. The tree is rich in milky pulp and has yellow-brown bark. Leaves are ovate to broadly ovate, with pointed leaf ends and rounded or shallowly heart-shaped leaf bases, with coarsely serrated margins and sometimes irregularly divided. Leaf surface glabrous, glossy, with sparse hairs on the abaxial veins. Dioecious, flowering in May, catkins. Fruit ripening in June-July, polygamous fruit ovoid or cylindrical, black-purple or white. Light-loving, slightly shade-tolerant when young. Prefers warm and humid climate, cold-tolerant. Tolerant of drought, strong ability to tolerate water and humidity.
Native to central and northern China. Cultivated in all provinces and regions from northeast to southwest China and from northwest to Xinjiang. North Korea, Japan, Mongolia, Central Asian countries, Russia, Europe and other places, as well as India, Vietnam are also cultivated. The leaves are used as fodder for silkworms. The wood can be used to make utensils, the branches can be used to weave baskets, the bark of the mulberry can be used as raw material for paper making, the mulberry can be used for food and wine making, and the leaves, fruits and root bark can be used as medicine.
Morphological characteristics
Trees or shrubs, 3-10 m or more tall, up to 50 cm in diameter at breast height, thick, grey bark, with irregular shallow longitudinal fissures;
Winter buds reddish brown, ovate, bud scales imbricate, grey-brown, with fine hairs; branchlets with fine hairs. Leaves ovate or broadly ovate, 5-15 cm long, 5-12 cm wide, apex acute, acuminate or rounded-obtuse, base rounded to shallowly cordate, margin coarsely serrate, sometimes leaves variously divided, surface bright green, glabrous, abaxially sparsely hairy along veins, with tufts of hairs in axils of veins; petiole 1.5-5.5 cm long, pilose; stipules lanceolate, caducous, outside densely hirsute.
Flowers unisexual, axillary or in axils of bud scales, borne at the same time as leaves; male inflorescences pendulous, 2-3.5 cm long, densely white pilose, andromonoecious. Tepals broadly elliptic, light green. Filaments inflexed at bud, anthers 2-loculed, globose to reniform, longitudinally lobed; female inflorescences 1-2 cm long, hairy, common pedicel 5-10 mm long pilose, female flowers sessile, tepals obovate, apices rounded, outside and margins hairy, both sides closely clasping the ovary, without a style, stigmas 2-lobed, papillae on inner face.
Polygamous fruit ovate-ellipsoid, 1-2.5 cm long, red or dark purple at maturity. Flowering April-May, fruiting May-August. [2] 
Main varieties
Roussanne (Morus alba L. var. multicaulis (Perrott.) Loud.)
This variety is distinguished from mulberry by large, thick leaves up to 30 cm long, with a vesicular, crinkled surface; the polygamous fruits are cylindrical, 1.5-2 cm long, and whitish-green or purplish-black at maturity.
Cultivated in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Sichuan, and Shaanxi in China. It is good fodder for silkworms because of its large leaves and thick, juicy flesh. [3] 
Habitat of origin
This species is native to central and northern China, and is now cultivated from the northeast to the southwest provinces and districts, and from the northwest to Xinjiang. It is also cultivated in Korea, Japan, Mongolia, Central Asia, Russia, Europe, India, and Vietnam.
Growth habit
Prefer warm and humid climate, slightly shade-tolerant. Temperature above 12 ℃ to start sprouting, the growth of the appropriate temperature 25-30 ℃, more than 40 ℃ will be inhibited, down to 12 ℃ below the growth will stop. Drought-resistant, intolerant of waterlogging, barren. Strong adaptability to the soil. [4] 
Propagation
Seeds
Harvest purple ripe mulberries, rub off the pulp, wash the seeds, and sow immediately or store in wet sand. Sow in spring and summer,
Sowing in spring, summer and autumn is possible. Summer and autumn sowing can be used in the current year new seeds. Before sowing with 50 ℃ warm water soak seeds, to be naturally cooled, and then soaked for 12 hours, put wet sand storage germination, often keep moist, to be ruptured when the seed coat white can be sown, according to the rows of plant spacing of 20-30 cm open ditch, ditch depth of 1 cm, per 1 hour m2 with the amount of 7.5-15 kg of seed. Mulch. Seedlings emerge after about 10 days. Seedling height 3-4cm between seedlings, remove the weak and leave the strong, and replenish seedlings. Set seedlings in spring and autumn at 10-15 cm spacing between plants.