I know exactly what you are talking about. I have them too, but I don't know what they are. I do know that the birds around here really love them. My car gets turned purple for a while. Yuck!

Mullberries can come in white, red, or deep dark purple.
They are realy hardy tres, too. In fact, do not plant one where you might possibly every want to get rid of it as it will come up from a stump or remaining roots like a dense shrub.
Birds do love them, though.

Your title reminded me of my grandson. We picked him up late on a Friday night to spend a weekend with us last year. Early the next morning, I had to run an errand in town, and since he was still asleep, I left him with my daughters. When I returned, he ran out to meet me, dressed only in a pair of shorts. He'd obvioulsy discovered the Mullberry. His fingers, feet and face were stained purply black and he said "Nana! Did you know you have a BERRY tree?"

They're not as tart as blackberries, but still good enough to eat out of hand. Kids love them because they don't have to be washed and they're easy to reach. they do make a great jelly either blended or straight. I haven't tried making wine yet, but would like to this year.

Mullberry trees bring back fond memories. When I was growing up a mullberry tree grew at the corner of our house. It had smooth bark that made it a fine climbing tree, large leaves that provided nice shade, and, of course, the berries. Mother cautioned against eating the berries since they were probably wormy. We, and the birds, ate the berries and I never saw a worm. The branches to the tree were long and supple. We could crawl to the end of the branch and it would bend and lower us to the ground. Occasionally we would climb too high and have to be "talked" down. The birds plant lots of mulberry trees in my yard now, and I'd have a mulberry orchard if I let them grow.

I just found one of these trees on our property - right in my front yard. Yummy, although a little hard to get to.

i have a huge blackberry tree in my backyard. i haved lived here for 8 yrs. i knew i had a tree, but i had not noticed the fruit until now. the fruit is ultra sweet and juicey. no one that i have talked to thinks that it is mulberries. they say that it has to be a bush. i have read that blackberry tree fruit is highly saut. is there any info anyone can give. who to contact or consult?

I still think it is a mulberry tree. Everyone I've ever known who thought they had a blackberry tree eventually found out it was just a mulberry tree. You might want to post this question at the Fruit forum. They probably will want you to describe the tree, esp. the size and shape of its leaves, and might prefer to see a photo in order to make a proper I.D.

Here is a link that might be useful: Fruit and Orchards Forum

It's got to be a mulberry tree...I love them! I've just started noticing the ones around my neighborhood...because I see the sprinkling of dark berries in the street. I'm thinking I need to be out walking more :)
My brother and I used to climb the tree on our 4 acres (smack dab in the middle of OKC) - we'd string old sheets up to catch the berries (we let the OK wind do most of our work!!)...then mom would make us a mulberry cobbler. We honestly didn't even take the time to pinch the stems off either. Good stuff with vanilla ice cream!

Just 'cause it's "my thing", I believe that it's spelled with only one L...mulberry, not mullberry...but we all know what we're talking about anyway :)

Old timers used mulberry wood to make mallets, because it doesn't split very easily.

I believe the roots and inner bark were used by homesteaders to make a nice yellow dye.

In NJ, a generation or more ago, they tried to start a silk industry and grew many mulberries. I have fond childhood memories of "pigging out" on those berries. We should get one going here on our homestead. They do grow rapidly. I'd love to have one growing where our poultry could pick up the fallen fruit. It would be a great dietary suppliment.

George

I think the leaves are just beautiful on our wild mulberries - the deepest green of any tree around. I spent a few hours scouting the underbrush on our 150 acres last fall when the other trees and shrubs were starting to look bad. The mulberries were still perfect looking and easy to spot through all of the brush from a distance. I found about 40 of them, mostly a few inches in diameter and pretty near and under the canopy of the large pecans, in the heavy underbrush. I marked them with marking ribbon so I would not cut them during the winter. I am not brave enough to fight the ticks and ivy during the summer to check the berries. The one large one we had that was accessible was 3/4 destroyed by the ice storm.

I have one near the fence row of our place. It only overhangs into my yard. The deer love it, but my husband trimmed it a bit so I could mow easier and the deer don't hit it as hard anymore. If I can get time this week, I will see if I can spread a tarp or sheet and shake a branch. My kids got into them over the weekend and brought me back maybe a cup : ) along with lots of purple skin. I don't know how many or much it will take to make a cobbler, but I'd like to try. I'm very cooking challenged, so we'll see. I used to pick dew berries when I was a kid and my mom would fix them up for me. They were fabulous or at least that's the way I remember them.

Jill

mulberries come in sexes--male trees flower and pollinate the females which bear fruit. It takes both to get fruit. So if you find a mulberry that doesn't fruit, look around for its female Mother and leave it alone. Persimmons are the same. Dorothy

yep Mulberries Have 3 big trees in yard.

It is growing out of a peach trees. They are not long like long like mulberry ..

I just found this tree....never saw fruit on it before...the trunk is at least a foot in diameter.....the berries are red and black..look like blackberries...birds are feasting!

Came up on this site trying to find out about this tree, that grows like a shrub. 20 feet tall. Never seen one before and I know my native trees. The owner calls it a Russian blackberry and knows nothin about it. Berry are tasty butt a bit bland. A neighbor made good jam but the berry stem was troublesome. Berries look like big black berries, red,turn black, tree is loaded with them, there all over the ground and the birds love them. What is it?

Just bought this house with this real nuisance tree next to the driveway. I love trees so I just trimmed it up so it wouldn't scratch me truck. Discovered the berrys about a week ago. All over the ground. Looked like Blackberrys. So I searched "Blackberry Tree". Found this site. The tree is a good foot in diameter at the base. Branches off to 3 large branches about 4 feet off the ground. Close to 20 feet tall. Thank you all for the information on this tree. Now I wish I hadn't cut it back so high, lol.

It will grow back quickly. I still LOVE mulberries! We did purchase an Illinois Everbearing Mulberrry, from Stark Brothers' Nursery, some years back. It has quickly reached 18' tall and is LOADED with really large, delicious fruit. We love picking them and adding them to yogurt, when we can restrain ourselves long enough to get the berries to the house. Also, our poultry hangs out under the tree, eating the drops.

Last night my daughter found a happy box turtle under the tree, eating dropped berries. He was so fat, from berries that he couldn't pull his feet and head into his shell, making a comical sight with his berry stained face and wriggling feet!

Last weekend I started an experiment to see if I could make mulberry cuttings. Mulberries are not easy to root. So, we'll see.

Here's a picture, albeit blurry one, of the size of these berries.

Macmex, They may not be "easy to root", but they are easy to graft. My DH and I were members of the "Fruit and Nut Growers association" when living in SW Missouri. First ran into them when they offered a free grafting class at one of their meetings. Nice bunch of folks and very willing to answer questions, teach, and offer grafting wood. If you can learn to identify them by leaves and bark, you can dig some that are small and plant them on your property.. later if they don't fruit, they can be "top worked" with wood from one that does bear fruit. Other than that you'd have to research to see if there are any other trees, in the same species, that are compatible for grafting. I have grafted the "Illinois Everbearing" onto wild ones on our property in MO.

Around here, we pull the seedlings out of flower beds that come up from bird droppings. Some leaves will be shaped like a mitten with a "thumb". Should be easy to research "how to identify young Mulberry trees". Millie

Mulberry trees come in male and female forms. Both can get quite large. There are specimens of both on our place that are easily a foot in diameter and 30 ft tall. Obviously we get very few berries from the tall female. A few fall on the ground, but the birds get most of them.

Thank you Millie, I need to try grafting. I pull the seedlings up all the time. One year I left a seedling in my main garden, thinking of grafting. Well, I got busy and forgot to do it. So, I left it the next summer. By fall it was too large to move! A friend had to use his tractor to get that out of there. For a few minutes I wondered if the tractor might not be able to get those roots out!

I am experimenting right now with green wood cuttings and a type of air layering. I'm positive that the air layering will work. Here are some pictures.

Cuttings

I took some video footage of this process. If it works out, it will eventually find its way into a course on www.homesteadingedu.com .

Here's how I did the air layering. Yesterday I was out "snitching mulberries" when it occurred to me that the tree had grown some really low hanging branches. Then I remembered how my father had taught me to "layer" such limbs, to make new trees or shrubs. This technique can work on almost any tree or shrub, because the limb is still connected to the tree. I simply bent the limb till it broke, but left it connected. Then I applied rooting compound and added a mix or garden soil and peat moss to the container. It'll sit there until, probably, Thanksgiving, before I check to see if it has roots. I anticipate that I'll actually get two little trees from this experiment; one where the limb goes in, and one where it comes out of the container.

Darn, I had a long wordy reply typed out and lost it somehow. Maybe it was a sign to shut up. LOL I've never tried to root mulberry, but if summer air layering doesn't work, leave it over winter. I used to have a book on rooting hardwood plants and some do root better in winter.

When we first moved to the wilds of MO, and while trying to get prepared for the first winter, I set some strawberry plants out in one of the only open spots we had. It had collected lots of leaves ... nice fluffy soil. Since this was a spot that collected leaves, and because I didn't want to take the time to find a light cover for those plants, I took some long cuttings off of my forsythia... stuck both ends in the ground making bows to help catch blowing leaves. Next spring I had roots on both ends of that darned forsythia. LOL

Wow, thank all u guys! I've been wondering what kinda tree was in my backyard. Turns out i could've been eating them all this time... Figures lol. Thanks again!