The bark of trunks and branches is light gray and ridged, or furrowed. May flowers are normally dioecious, small, and greenish in color. Fruits are white, pink, or violet and ripen in July or August. Fruit is normally lighter and inferior in quality when compared to the red mulberry. Fruit is relished by birds and may be substituted for blackberries in recipes.
Male trees are fruitless and preferred in the landscape.
The red mulberry is native and occurs throughout the state. It prefers the rich soil of the lower and middle districts but is nowhere abundant. It is commonly called mulberry, as there are no other native species. The white mulberry and paper mulberry, which are sometimes found in waste places, are introduced species which have, to some extent, become naturalized. The red mulberry is a small tree, rarely 50 feet high and 2 feet in diameter, often found growing in the shade of larger trees.