2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
White mulberry (Latin Morus alba) - a fruit crop belonging to the Mulberry family.
Description
White mulberry is a deciduous fruit tree with a spherical and incredibly spreading crown, the height of which varies from fifteen to eighteen meters. Both the trunks and the large lower branches are covered with strong grayish-brown bark.
The broadly ovate leaves of this culture are characterized by an irregular shape. All of them are finger-toothed, have small notches along the edges and are attached to branches on long petioles (their length is from five to fifteen centimeters). By the way, the leaves grow on two types of shoots: on shortened fruiting ones and on elongated vegetative ones.
Unisexual flowers of white mulberry fold into compact bizarre inflorescences: tiny staminate flowers form spectacular cylindrical spikelets, and from pistillate flowers magnificent short oval inflorescences are obtained, located on shorter peduncles. Near the fruit, the powerful axes of the inflorescences grow quite strongly, forming spectacular seedlings from a very impressive number of nuts, enclosed in overgrown very fleshy and incredibly juicy pericarp.
The fruit of this plant is nothing more than cylindrical polystyrene up to four centimeters long. As for their color, it can be reddish-white, pinkish-white, or just white. The berries have a sweet taste, however, in terms of saturation, these seedlings are still inferior to black mulberry.
Where grows
The natural habitat of white mulberry growth is the eastern regions of China - there they began to cultivate it back in the second millennium BC. In ancient times, this culture penetrated into many Central Asian countries, as well as on the territory of modern Iran, North India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. And during the Middle Ages, she reached the Transcaucasus. In Georgia, they began to grow it in the fourth century AD, and it got to Europe only in the twelfth century. As for the New World, it appeared there only in the sixteenth century.
In the seventeenth century, they tried to grow white mulberry even in Moscow, but there it never took root, and this is because the climate is too cold for it. But it is successfully grown in the southern part of Russia - in the North Caucasus and in the Lower Volga region: now you can contemplate huge plantations there.
Now the main suppliers of white mulberry are Portugal and Spain, as well as Afghanistan, Iran and India.
Application
The main purpose of this culture is not so much its use as food, but its use as food for silkworms. Nevertheless, mulberries are eagerly eaten by people (most often fresh). They are also fermented into wine and dried. These berries are surprisingly nutritious and useful - they are excellent helpers for various inflammatory ailments of the upper respiratory tract, heart failure, atherosclerosis, kidney hypofunction, dropsy, rheumatism, allergies, burns, obesity, blurred vision, hair loss, anemia, some autoimmune diseases, toothache and even impotence.
Contraindications
Since white mulberry contains substances endowed with the ability to have a hypertensive effect, they should be used with extreme caution for hypertensive patients, and they are generally contraindicated for diabetics, since they contain a lot of sugars.
And in order not to get bloating or indigestion as an unpleasant "bonus", you should not drink cold water after eating fresh white mulberry. And you shouldn't abuse these juicy fruits either - their excessive use can lead to diarrhea.
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Mulberry
Mulberry (Latin Morus) Is a genus of deciduous trees of the Mulberry family. The genus includes 17 species. The plant is known under the names - here, mulberry, mulberry, mulberry, mulberry. In nature, it is found mainly in the subtropical and warm temperate zones of Africa, Asia and North America.
Mulberry In The Suburbs. Varieties
For several decades now, a representative of the South of Russia has been successfully growing mulberry (mulberry) in the Moscow region. Incredibly, history knows the fact that this plant was cultivated by Peter 1 in Izmailovo. Maybe these trees are distant descendants of those pioneers?
Chrysanthemum Mulberry
Chrysanthemum mulberry (lat.Chrysanthemum x morifolium) - a large group of varieties and hybrids, characterized by a variety of forms, abundant flowering and high decorativeness. Used to decorate flower beds, as well as create bouquets. Nowadays it is actively used by Russian, European, Chinese and Japanese gardeners.
Black Mulberry
Black mulberry (lat.Morus nigra) - a fruit tree belonging to the Mulberry family. Description Black mulberry is a deciduous tree, the height of which ranges from ten to thirteen meters. The length of the leaves of this plant pubescent from below is in the range from ten to twenty centimeters, and their width is in the range from six to ten centimeters.
Red Mulberry
Red mulberry (Latin Morus rubra) - fruit crop from the Mulberry family. It is much less common than black or white mulberry. Description The red mulberry is a relatively small, deciduous tree that boasts a luxurious tent-like crown. The average height of trees ranges from ten to fifteen meters, however, individual specimens sometimes grow up to twenty meters up.
