Red Mulberry

Morus rubra - Red Mulberry

When the first specimens of this North American tree were introduced to Europe, the English botanist Rai mistook them for hazelnut trees: he only saw male catkins and was unaware that the species could be dioecious by abortion.

Several decades passed before female individuals finally revealed their fruits, and it was understood that Red Mulberry and Virginia Mulberry referred to one and the same species.

This botanical misunderstanding attests to the initial rarity of fruit-bearing trees, to the point that Poiteau himself, in the 1840s, no longer saw the robust individuals in the Jardin du Roi that, thirty years earlier, had produced such prized mulberries.

The Red Mulberry surpasses the black mulberry in size and vigor. Its wood, harder and denser, was reputed suitable for construction.

Its large, heart-shaped leaves taper to a point and have an irregular, saw-toothed edge. Rough on the surface, hairy and reticulated on the underside, they are rarely flat, often folded or twisted. On vigorous young shoots, they divide into three or five lobes.

The yellowish, loosely arranged male catkins fall quickly after pollen release. The female catkins, initially green, then enlarge and become succulent. They elongate up to 41 millimeters, take on a cylindrical shape, and droop under their own weight.

Changing from green to red, from red to purple, then to black at full maturity, they form mulberries with a delicate flavor, enhanced by a pleasant acidity absent from the black mulberry. They ripen fifteen days before the latter.

This plate is taken from Pierre-Antoine Poiteau and Pierre Jean François Turpin's Traité des Arbres Fruitiers, a botanical encyclopedia published between 1807 and 1835, a major reference in 19th-century naturalistic illustration.

It combines the rigor of scientific drawing with a rare artistic sensibility, characteristic of the great plates from the golden age of illustrated botany.

As an anecdote, this plate was used by Salvador Dali for his lithograph series 'Flordali, les Fruits' in 1969.