Morus microphylla, the Texas mulberry, is a species of flowering plant in the family Moraceae. It is a shrub or tree native to northern Mexico and to central and west Texas, southwestern Oklahoma, and the southern half of New Mexico and Arizona in the United States. It grows in canyons and on slopes, usually near streams, from in elevation.
Morus microphylla is a shrub or tree, sometimes reaching in height. It has much smaller leaves than the other two species native to the US (M. alba and M. rubra), the blade usually less than long; the leaves are dark green on top, paler and hairy on the bottom.. It is dioecious (that is, each plant has only male or only female flowers), with clusters of tiny flowers appearing in spring along with the leaves. The edible fruits are red, purple, or nearly black,Thomas H. Kearney & Robert H. Peebles. 1979. Arizona Flora, with Supplement, Second Edition. University of California Press, Berkeley.P. Martin et al. 2000. Gentry's Rio Mayo Plants. The Tropical Deciduous Forest & Environs of Northwest Mexico. University of Arizona Press, Tucson about long, and are consumed by wildlife, and, historically, by Native Americans. In ancient (probably prehistoric) times, the Havasupai people introduced the species to the Grand Canyon.
The species was described by Samuel Botsford Buckley in 1862. Some authorities treat it as a synonym of Morus celtidifolia.Berg, C. C. 2001. Moreae, Artocarpeae, and Dorstenia (Moraceae) with introductions to the family and Ficus and with additions and corrections to Flora Neotropica Monograph 7. Flora Neotropica 83: iii–iv, 1–346.Jørgensen, P. M., M. H. Nee & S. G. Beck. (eds.) 2013. Catálogo de las plantas vasculares de Bolivia. Monographs in systematic botany from the Missouri Botanical Garden.Berg, C. C. 1998. 27B. Moraceae (excl. Ficus). 60: 1–128. In G. W. Harling & L. Andersson (eds.), Flora of Ecuador .University of Göteborg, Göteborg.Linares, J. L. 2005. Listado comentado de los árboles nativos y cultivados en la república de El Salvador. Ceiba 44(2): 105–268.
References