che / Chinese mulberry

Photo: SKas — CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Survives zone 5 through 9

Harvest calendar

Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.

⚠ Honestly: mild, watermelon-ish but widely criticised as BLAND, insipid and seedy — a curiosity.

Hardiness

Zone 5–9

Habit

Tree

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

Aug–Sept

Mature size

Small tree 5–8 m

Light

Full sun

Soil pH

6.0–7.5 (lime-tolerant)

Environment

Temperate

Native range

Eastern China, Korea and northern Vietnam, naturalised in Japan — hillsides, thickets and forest margins. Long grown as a silkworm fodder plant as well as for its fruit.

Status

Both wild and cultivated

Years to fruit

4–6 yrs

Growth speed

Moderate

Spacing

500 cm (197 in) apart — about 25 m² (269 sq ft) per plant

Leaf shape

Alternate, ovate 5–12 cm, often with the three lobes the name records though many leaves are unlobed; glossy above, with a stout spine at many of the leaf axils.

Root system

Deep-rooted and drought-tough, suckering modestly. The wood is strongly yellow and both it and the bark were traditionally used for dye — the same pigment that runs through this genus.

Fruit description

A soft red compound fruit 2.5–5 cm, like a small round mulberry, ripening in late summer. ⚠ Honestly assessed: mild, faintly watermelon-like, sweet without much acid, and widely called insipid and seedy. It stains everything and drops heavily. Worth growing as a curiosity rather than a crop.

Propagation

Seed after cold stratification, root cuttings, or grafting for named forms. Dioecious — a female tree is needed, and a male nearby improves the set.

Pollination

DIOECIOUS — needs a female (a male gives better set)

The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.