Volunteers

About 2 years ago, I noticed a "volunteer" tree growing in my back yard, near to the house. Because its ascension would not eventually impact on overhead telephone, cable, and electrical wires, I let it continue to volunteer. It started out as just a 2-foot shoot but rapidly grew to over 15 feet, reaching the second story of my house. It is right outside my office windows, so it's great entertainment for the cats who sit in the office windows and for me as I labor over the computer. Now this tree is a dominant presence, and it serves as a shelter, pit stop, and food source for many birds and some daring squirrels. It took until this spring for me to be able to identify it as a white mulberry (Morus alba). As the berries ripen, they turn deep purple. Before they've had a chance to ripen, however, they are voraciously eaten by birds of many different colors, species, and temperaments. In just the past couple of weeks, the cats and I have seen catbirds, cardinals, robins, grackles, and even mockingbirds vying for these berries, and sometimes this competition has led to noisy confrontations that are a source of amazement and amusement for the cats and me. This free-for-all starts early in the morning, about 6:30 a.m. Eastern time. In a few hours, everybody has gone on to other things, and things are quiet. Throughout the day, various kinds of birds will fly in and out of the tree, using it as a way station, but the early-morning hours are the most entertaining. The catbirds, especially, drive my cats crazy. I guess they aren't called "catbirds" for nothing. Between the bird battles, squirrel scoldings, and the cats' chattering and slobbering as they watch all this, I can hardly hear myself think.

Recognized as the last tree to bud in spring, gardeners use the mulberry as a sign that danger of frost is past. The plant's genus name, Morus, means "delay" in Latin. Small green cup-shaped flowers appear in March and are wind-pollinated. Fruits are similar in shape and size to blackberries and start as white, turn green, and eventually (if they aren't eaten first) the deep purple/black of any mulberry. Mulberry trees are propagated by seed, grafting, and hardwood, softwood, and root cuttings.

In 1621, the white mulberry was introduced to Virginia for the new silkworm industry expected to burgeon in the south. Colonists were required to care for the trees, whose leaves were the diet of the silkworm. For two centuries, the silkworm industry flourished in the United States, but by 1839 cheaper labor in foreign countries, severe cold in winter, and disease brought the industry to a close.

Wildlife is obviously attracted to the tree. If they miss getting the fruit on the tree, the ripe berries drop readily, covering the ground, where butterflies, fireflies, gray squirrels, wild turkeys, and songbirds congregate at a messy mulberry "pub room" floor.

Mulberry is one of seven important plant groups for bird habitat. They provide food during the nesting season along with shelter and nesting sites. Over 60 species of birds feed on mulberries including robins, bluebirds, cardinals, grey catbirds, mockingbirds, cedar waxwings, orioles, tanagers, and vireos.

People like mulberries almost as much as birds. Mulberries make a perfect snack. A cup of raw mulberries contains 60 calories and is high in dietary fiber, riboflavin, iron, magnesium, potassium, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, and very high in iron. The easiest way for humans to harvest large quantities for freezing or baking is to spread a plastic tarp under the tree and shake the branches. Ripe berries fall like rain. There is no chance for me to do this here since my mulberries are almost all gone in the white/green stage. There are simply too many birds competing for them at this time of year.

Berries vary in flavor from sweet to tart depending on the variety. They make delicious tarts, muffins, breads, pies, and fruit crisps. In Medieval England, mulberry puree was added to spiced meat or eaten as pudding. In Tibet, dried mulberries were ground into flour and mixed with dried almonds for a staple food in winter. Stories from England report that ladies would take afternoon tea, scones, and cream under the mulberry tree, letting the fruit drop down into the cream. I wonder what else dropped into the cream. Thanks, but no.

Mulberry leaf tea originated in the Orient and is used as a medicinal herbal tea. In the United States, fruit farmers often planted mulberry trees as decoys, keeping birds away from the more treasured and less abundant berries. The common practice of planting mulberry trees on farms near barns and homesteads served both domestic animals and the farm family. Mulberry trees bear an abundance of fruit and pleasure to humankind and wildlife over their lifetime. Red and white mulberries live up to 75 years, and black mulberries have been known to produce fruit for 300 years. My white mulberry tree, I'm pretty sure, was accidentally or deliberately shat out by a passing bird. I thank that bird, and I see now how altruistic such a shat was, for the fruit of this tree is feeding many other birds who, in their own time, will have shat as well, and perhaps white mulberry trees will volunteer all over Parkville and Baltimore in due course. Nature is its own reward.

I have another volunteer tree, and this one is now about 4 feet tall, the child of a huge American Sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua) at the rear of my back yard (see upper right picture). Because it will eventually grow to 100-120 feet in height, I also had to ensure it would not impinge on overhead wires. I wish we lived in a world where all "wiring" had to be underground (or we were altogether "wireless") so trees and other plants could freely grow without being subjected to our pruning and our whims.

If we humans would stop developing, paving, mowing, spraying, weeding, polluting, pruning, and otherwise disturbing the land and environment, it wouldn't take Mother long to re-establish Paradise. That's one of the hopes I hold in my heart. There are far too many people on this planet and not nearly enough vegetation or volunteers. "The breeze, the trees, the honey bees--all volunteers!" (Juliet Carinreap)