Narrative

Red Mulberry (Morus rubra) is found east of the Great Plains from Florida to New York. The fruit is edible and resembles a blackberry but is not as sweet or as solid. The tree can grow to seventy feet. The wood is strong and is used in fence posts and occasionally boats. The tree is a good ornamental.

Parts of this lifeform are edible. This lifeform is widespread, but not common.

This lifeform is found east of the Continental Divide in North America.

Mulberries (genus Morus) are a group of small trees with almost round, toothed leaves. Frequently, some of the leaves on a given tree will have deep round based indentations creating a lobed leaf. This genus comprises about 12 species of trees and shrubs native to Eurasia, including Japan, Africa, and North America. In addition to the Texas mulberry (Morus microphylla) and the red mulberry (Morus rubra), at least two other species in this genus are established in the United States. The fruits of many mulberries are desirable foods for both man and animal. Deer and raccoons often eat the fallen berries. Furthermore, this genus is also applied to gannets in the bird class.

Mullberry Family (Moraceae) has over 1,000 species with perhaps seventy genera. The Classification of the Mulberries found in the eastern and central United States is somewhat confusing. The species are as follows:

Red Mullberry (Morus rubra) is native to the United States, and it is found in rich woods.

Red Mullberry (Morus tatarica or perhaps Morus alba tatarica) is not native to the United States. This species is very, very common in the Chicago area, for example. It is found in vacant lots, along fence lines, and is everywhere abundant.

White Mullberry (Morus alba) is not native to the United States, but it is found frequently as an introduced species.

Elm and Mullberry Order (Urticales) is usually broken down into four different families.

Dicots (Dicotyledoneae Class) are the predominant group of vascular plants on earth. With the exception of the grasses (Monocots) and the Conifers (Gymnosperms), most of the larger plants that one encounters are Dicots. Dicots are characterized by having a seed with two outer shell coverings.

Some of the more primitive Dicots are the typical hardwood trees (oaks, birches, hickories, etc). The more advanced Dicots include many of the Composite (Aster) Family flowers like the Dandelion, Aster, Thistles, and Sunflowers. Although many Monocots reach a very high degree of specialization, most botanists feel that the Dicots represent the most advanced group of plants.

Seed plants (Phylum Embryophyta) are generally grouped into one large phylum containing three major classes: the Gymnosperms, the Monocots, and the Dicots. (Some scientists separate the Gymnosperms into a separate phylum and refer to the remaining plants as flowering plants or Angiospermae.)

For North American counts of the number of species in each genus and family, the primary reference has been John T. Kartesz, author of A Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland (1994). The geographical scope of his lists include, as part of greater North America, Hawaii, Alaska, Greenland, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.

Kartesz lists 21,757 species of vascular plants comprising the ferns, gymnosperms and flowering plants as being found in greater North America (including Alaska, Hawaii, Greenland, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

There are estimates within the scientific world that about half of the listed North American seed plants were originally native with the balance being comprised of Eurasian and tropical plants that have become established.