Photo: Daderot — Public domain · source
Survives zone 6 through 9
Harvest calendar
Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.
Morus australis, the Korean or Aino mulberry, is a smaller, fast-growing East Asian forest-margin tree bearing sweet but mild-flavored berries about a centimeter across that ripen from red to near-black. Unlike the strictly dioecious pattern typical of the genus, it is documented as self-fertile, able to set fruit without a separate pollinator tree.
- Hardiness
- Zone 6–9
- Habit
- Tree
- Edible part
- Fruit
- Ripens
- June–Aug
- Mature size
- Tree 8–12 m; dwarf forms containerable
- Light
- Full sun to partial
- Soil pH
- 6.0–7.5 (lime-tolerant)
- Environment
- Temperate
- Native range
- East Asia and the eastern Himalaya — China from Liaoning south to Hainan and south-eastern Xizang, Korea, Japan from Hokkaido to the Ryukyus, and Taiwan, reaching west through Bhutan, Nepal, northern India and Myanmar — occurring on forest margins, mountain slopes, fallow land, and scrub in valleys, often in limestone areas, at elevations of roughly 500–2000m.
- Status
- Both wild and cultivated
- Years to fruit
- 2–3 yrs
- Growth speed
- Fast-growing for its smaller ultimate size, reaching about 7.5m.
- Spacing
- 400 cm (157 in) apart — about 16 m² (172 sq ft) per plant
- Leaf shape
- Ovate to sword-shaped leaves 5–14cm long by 3.5–12cm wide, often with 3–5 lobes, especially on young or vigorous growth.
- Root system
- Brittle roots, as in the rest of the genus, requiring careful handling at transplanting; grows as a single-trunked tree rather than a suckering colonizer.
- Fruit description
- A small syncarp about 1–1.5cm across, red ripening to almost black at maturity; sweet and juicy but, like M. alba, generally considered mild or insipid rather than richly flavored.
- Propagation
- Propagated the same way as most mulberries — semi-ripe cuttings (7–10cm) in midsummer or hardwood cuttings (25–30cm) in autumn or early spring, both with good rooting success — plus seed after 2–3 months' cold stratification, or by autumn layering.
- Pollination
- PFAF describes M. australis as monoecious and self-fertile — bearing both male and female flowers on the same wind-pollinated tree — rather than following the strictly dioecious pattern typical of the genus, so a single tree can set fruit on its own.
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.
Growing guide
Fertilizing. Undemanding and tolerant of a wide pH range from mildly acid to mildly alkaline soils; an annual spring mulch of compost or well-rotted manure is generally sufficient rather than heavy feeding.
How it spreads. Grows as a single-trunked tree with no documented tendency to sucker or colonize; it spreads only by seed where birds disperse the fruit.
Growing tips. Hardy to about USDA zone 6, making it more cold-sensitive than M. alba but hardier than the subtropical species in this group. Like other mulberries it is notably resistant to honey fungus, and pruning should be done only in winter dormancy since cut wood bleeds heavily. It has no sericulture role comparable to M. alba, though its leaves are used as a minor, local silkworm-feed substitute in parts of its native range.
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