Morus alba (white mulberry, "Maguwa")

Japanese name: マグワ （真桑）
Scientific name: Morus alba

[Overview]
A deciduous tree 6–10 m tall.
Some individuals reach as much as 15 m.
Young branches bear coarse hairs.
Leaves are alternate, ovate, 8–15 cm long and 4–8 cm wide, either undivided or sometimes 3-lobed.
Coarse hairs grow sparsely on the veins on the underside of the leaf.
The leaf margin has triangular teeth.
The petiole is 2–4 cm long and at first bears coarse hairs.
The stipules are lanceolate.
It is dioecious.
Catkins arise from the lower leaf axils of young branches and from the axils of scale leaves.
The male catkin is 2–2.5 cm long, and its stalk is 1 cm long and densely covered with soft hairs.
The female catkin is 0.5–1 cm long, and its stalk is 0.5–1 cm long and densely covered with soft hairs.
Both male and female flowers are small and inconspicuous.
The fruit is an elliptical aggregate fruit that ripens purplish black, though some are white.
The styles remaining on the fruit are short and inconspicuous.
The fruit is sweet and edible.

[Uses]
Because the leaves serve as food for silkworms, it is planted for sericulture.
The root bark is used medicinally.

[Cultivation]
Propagate by cuttings.
It prefers sunny, well-drained soil.
Rainfall is sufficient for watering unless sunny weather continues and the soil becomes severely dry.
Apply organic fertilizer in winter, and place fast-acting chemical fertilizer on the soil in spring and after flowering as a thank-you fertilizer.
Pests and diseases include atrophy disease, bacterial leaf curl, powdery mildew, leaf soiling disease, white root rot, Kuwa-no-meiga (mulberry pyralid), Amerika-shirohitori (fall webworm), Kuwa-gomadara-hitori and teppomushi (longhorn beetle larvae).

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