Is that a mulberry tree in my back yard?

I was out working in the yard today and saw what looked like an unripe mulberry on the ground. I thought, “That’s weird. Maybe a bird flew it here and dropped it.” But then I saw another one. Hmmm…I looked up and the tree above was covered in what look to be mulberries! I’ve never seen berries on this tree before. I had done some heavy pruning on it earlier this spring to get more sun on my garden. I was even thinking of cutting it down to make space for something more useful. Now I feel kinda bad about it.

Mulberry tree.

Mulberries. See the big cuts I did?

From researching mulberries this afternoon I found that they:

• don’t like big branches cut off…oops.
• live a long time-decades.
• mulberries aren’t berries, but are multiple fruits clustered together
• can grow 40-70 ft tall, depending on the variety–that can be a problem if it shades my garden.

Wildman Steve Brill’s website on mulberries has some great info about the tree varieties and harvesting. I’m not sure which variety I have. I’ll have to observe the berries and climb up and feel the leaves.

Here is some nutritional info on mulberries.

Now all I have to worry about is if I hurt this tree with the heavy pruning I did.

Oh, and sorry for the poor pictures. It was windy today and I had to zoom way in to get the berries to show up.

-L