[MAIPC] Another Non-Native Mulberry: Morus australis

[Judy Fulton]

Has anyone been seeing Morus australis (Chinese mulberry), a mulberry 
tree/shrub that seems to have recently arrived on these shores? You can 
find information on the species in the Flora of China at 
http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=200006380. In 
addition, people have been submitting photos of this species to a plant 
identification Facebook page 
(https://www.facebook.com/groups/156706504394635/search/?query=Morus%20australis). 


Botanist Charlie Davis and I run an informal plant ID lab twice a month 
at the Natural History Society of Maryland, and attendees have brought 
M. australis samples to two out of the last three sessions. One specimen 
came from Meadow Lane (an alley near W. University Parkway) in Baltimore 
and another from Old Hanover Road in Reisterstown, MD. Attached are 
photos from the sapling brought to the lab from Old Hanover Road on 8/10/15.

Apparently there have been increasing numbers of sightings in N. America 
although Charlie said that sometimes specimens have been misidentified 
as Morus alba. Note that M. australis leaves vary from entire to deeply 
lobed, and its lobes tend to be thinner/longer than M. alba's. Some 
people have even thought that the M. australis plants were figs based on 
leaf shape although other characteristics are clearly quite different. 
It has also been reported that M. australis is hard to kill -- that it 
regrows with multiple stems if cut down; however, I don't know whether 
any herbicides were used concurrently.

I'm thinking that this might become the next invasive Morus species.

Judy
____________________________________________

Judith P. Fulton
Master Gardener
University of Maryland Extension
410-337-3701
jfulton5 at gmail.com
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