Plant Guide > Trees > Mulberries and Osage Orange and Figs

Mulberries and Osage Orange and Figs

FAMILY MORACEAE

Trees of small or medium size, with milky sap. Leaves simple, alternate, deciduous, variable. Flowers minute, in axillary spikes or heads, dioecious or monoecious. Fruit compound, of many small fleshy drupes.

The mulberry family comprises 55 genera and 925 species of temperate zone and tropical plants, of which the fig, genus Ficus, includes 600 species. The hemp, important for its fibrous inner bark, and the hop, are well known herbaceous members of the mulberry family. Hemp is a native of Europe and Asia, but has run wild here, and is now in cultivation throughout both temperate zones. Hops are used in the brewing of beer, and in the Old World as well as the New are raised as a staple field crop. The plant is native to both hemispheres.

Botanically, the mulberry family lies between the elms and nettles-strange company, but justified by fundamental characteristics. Three genera of this family have tree forms in America: Morus, the mulberry; Toxylon, the osage orange; and Ficus, the fig. Two native species of mulberry and three exotic species are generally cultivated for their fruit, their wood, and as ornamental trees. Weeping forms are much planted.

Black Mulberry Tree
Chinese Mulberry Tree
Golden Fig Tree
Mexican Mulberry Tree
Osage Orange
Paper Mulberry Tree
Poplar Leaf Fig Tree
Red Mulberry Tree