Mulberries & Lawn Care

Types and features

• Red mulberry (Morus rubra) grows wild in North America from southeastern parts of Canada into the eastern U.S. White mulberry (Morus alba) is native to China and it grows as a naturalized species in portions of North America, often hybridizing with red mulberry. These trees, which mature between 30 and 50 feet on average, generate attractive leaves of different shapes, a characteristic called polymorphism, which means leaves with variable numbers of lobes may occur on the same branch. The fruits they produce, similar to blackberries but different colors, are edible by humans and attract wildlife.

Roots

• Mulberry trees have a shallow system of roots, a trait that create problems as they infiltrate the pavement of sidewalks and driveways or the foundations of buildings, notes the University of California Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program. Placing them far enough away on your lawn from such structures to avoid problems is prudent. The shallow roots also are not conducive to any plants thriving beneath a mulberry tree. When selecting a spot for your mulberry on your lawn, consider that it will often have bare ground beneath it for this reason.

Messy Fruit

• One of the main problems facing homeowners when they grow a mulberry on their lawn is the messiness of the fruits. Those that drop from the trees can wind up underfoot if the tree is in a high foot-traffic area. Mowing the lawn around the mulberry can result in the berries squished under your footwear, allowing you to track it into your house and staining flooring and carpets. Birds eat the berries, generating excrement that can end up on siding and vehicles. Fruitless varieties of the mulberry include Mapleleaf, Fruitless, Stibling, Kingan and Urbana, giving you the interesting foliage aspect but not the untidy fruiting effect.

Suckering

• Mulberries produce new growth from their roots -- a process in the plant world known as suckering. If you do not prune back any new growth that develops from a mulberry tree's roots, these trees can create thickets that spread across your landscape. Birds disperse the seeds as well, causing new bushes and plants to scatter about your lawn. Prune back any unwanted new growth and scour your lawn for whatever new growth you can find and eradicate it by pulling it up before it gets too big.