Blackberry tree?

[Jim Elbrecht]

I know you're going to say it is a mulberry-- but my wife is quite sure it isn't.

She saw it today at a patient's house. [she's a traveling nurse].

She says the top branches were way too high for her to reach and the lady said she used to keep it trimmed but hasn't been well enough to keep it contained recently.

Looks like a tree, not a bush. There are no thorns. Berries are tasty & look like blackberries. Leaves are like oak leaves.

Zone 5ish in New York. [Schenectady county]

We have a black mulberry & I showed her a branch. Nope-- the leaves are wrong, and the berries aren't quite right.

Any thoughts?

Thanks, Jim

[FarmI]

There is such a thing as a 'thornless backberry' but they are just like a blackberry in every other respect ie, they have multiple stems and there is no possible way that they could be described as a tree. I'll think about it, but nothing comes immediately to mind.

[echinosum]

Probably a red mulberry then. Red mulberries (Morus rubra) have quite variable leaf shapes, from nearly round to deeply lobed like black mulberry, as can be seen if you google images for it. The one shown on Wikipedia 'Morus rubra - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia'

a bit oak-tree leaf like. Despite the name, red mulberry fruits are black when ripe.

I think if there was another Z5-hardy tree with tasty blackberry-like berries, aside from the two kinds of black-fruited mulberry, I would know about it, because I've done a lot of research into tasty things I can grow. See this site. 'Plant Uses'

[Derald]

Is this it?

[Doug Freyburger]

I have seen bushes grafted on the top of a tree trunk. I looks pretty wierd but it works as decoration. Before following that like I thought in terms of a thornless blackberry version grafted onto a mullberry trunk.

[Derald]

Well, I've seen different varieties of the same fruit grafted to a common rootstock but how it is accomplished and how closely related host and scion have to be, I know nothing about.

[echinosum]

Blackberry = Rosaceae (rose family) Mulberry = Moraceae (fig family) Both are within the order of Rosids, but it still seems implausible to graft at such distance of relation.

[Jim Elbrecht]

Well-- she went to the patient's house again today. The patient gladly gave her a branch so I could identify it.

It is, as we all suspected, a Mulberry. The berries are much smaller than the ones on my tree--- but they taste good! Mine are huge, but a sickly sweet with little flavor- these are a bit tart and tastier to me.

The leaves on this one are mostly deeply lobed where you really have to search our tree to find the deeply lobed leaves. Our tree [a

15-20 yr old volunteer] is about 20 feet tall [and I prune it heavily every few years] which is a lot taller than this lady's tree, according to my wife.

Thanks to all for your replies-- I was so looking forward to a real blackberry tree. Darn it.

Jim

[FarmI]

Plant the cutting as mulberries grow from cuttings.

[Jim Elbrecht]

-snip-

I'm going to give it a try. She cut a 3-4' branch- wrapped the cut end in paper towels & placed in a plastic bag. So, even after a summer day in the trunk of her car, after a night in the pond it looks pretty healthy today. I'm going to try a couple grafts on my tree-- and try to root the remainders.

Mulberry isn't a common tree in my part of the world- so I just always thought they were all as un-exciting as the one I have. It will be nice to have one for the birds & squirrels and one for people..

Jim

[Snag]

The damn things would take over my yard if I let them . But you're right , the birds and aquirres love 'em . Anybody want some peppervine starts ? I'm continuously pulling them out of my garden . The ones in the "grass" I just mow .

[Heathcliff]

You may have a discovery of interest to mulberry growers. There is a mulberry market with named varieties, and probably some university research programs - try googling "good tasting mulberry" or some such for further info. -- H