mulberries

It is mulberry season in my backyard and the birds are beginning to devour the sweet fruit.  Mulberries are actually berries but a fruit cluster that looks like berries. Leaves of white mulberry trees are eaten by silkworms in China to enhance silk production. The Romans used the leaves for medicinal purposes and in German folklore the fruit was associated with evil and it was thought the devil used the root of the tree to polish his boots. White mulberries are native to Asia and the red mulberry is native to America and is grown in almost every state. The darker berried trees live up to 100 years whereas the white only live around 70.