Mulberries

Mulberries are very common along fencerows and wooded borders of schools. Like the black cherry and eastern redcedar, seeds are spread by birds that eat the fruit and deposit seeds after they pass through the digestive system intact. Mulberry fruits ripen in early summer and are one of the most popular foods of songbirds. Native Americans fed mulberries to Captain John Smith and his group when they landed at Jamestown in May of 1607. Several insects eat the foliage of mulberry. The io moth is a silkworm with distinctive eye-spots on its wing. It’s larva, or caterpillar, eats mulberry leaves. Also, the larva of geometer moths, the familiar inchworms, feed on mulberry leaves.