Across many cultures the mulberry has stood for two very different things: patient wisdom and love that ends in grief. The first meaning comes from how the living tree behaves in spring, and the second comes from an old story about its fruit. Few trees have been as useful to people, and much of the rest of its symbolism follows that usefulness, from silk to sacred cloth to musical instruments.
Why the Mulberry Stands for Wisdom
The wisdom meaning starts with something anyone can see in their own yard. The mulberry is one of the last trees to open its leaves in spring.1The Blooming Garden. Mulberry Tree following. 7/4/14 It does not risk its new leaves until the danger of frost has passed.2woolfherbarium.blogspot.com. #63 Mulberry The Roman writer Pliny the Elder, in the first century AD, took that caution as a virtue and called it “the wisest of trees.”3The Orchard Project. Mulberry Symbolism: Meanings in Culture and Myth Even the tree’s Latin name, Morus, is linked to a Greek word meaning “slow.”4The Orchard Project. Mulberry Symbolism: Meanings in Culture and Myth Later writers read the late leafing as caution and perfect timing.5flowerlexicon.com. White Mulberry: Symbolism, Victorian Meaning & Folklore
In early spring, neighbouring trees can be fully in leaf while the mulberry’s branches still seem bare and dead. Some owners worry the tree has died, but the late start is normal for the species, and the leaves often appear quickly once the weather warms.
The delay also protects the tree. A late frost can kill tender new leaves and buds, forcing a tree to spend stored energy on a second round of growth. By holding back, the mulberry avoids that loss, which makes it a real survival strategy and not just a quirk.
That sets it apart from a symbol like the owl, which stands for knowledge and learning. The mulberry stands for practical judgment and patience, so it suits a gift or design honouring someone careful rather than someone clever. Its meaning also rests on observed behaviour, not on a legend.
Pyramus and Thisbe and the Red Fruit of Tragic Love
The love-and-death meaning comes from an ancient story about a fruit’s color. In Ovid’s telling, the young lovers Pyramus and Thisbe meet a violent end beneath a white mulberry. Their blood stains the tree’s pale fruit, which explains why mulberries ripen dark red. The tree came to hold both innocent young love and the passion that destroys it.6LitCharts. O Pioneers! White Mulberry Tree Symbol Analysis
The families of the two lovers forbid them to marry, so they plan to meet in secret at a mulberry beside a tomb. Thisbe arrives first, but a lioness with a bloody mouth frightens her away, and she drops her cloak. Pyramus finds the torn, bloodied cloak, concludes she is dead, and kills himself. Thisbe returns, finds him, and dies by the same sword. The gods darken the fruit so the lovers are remembered.
Ripe black or red mulberries stain fingers and pavement a deep blood color, which helps explain why the story stuck. Shakespeare later parodied the tale in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Writers kept returning to this image. In Willa Cather’s novel O Pioneers!, two lovers die under a white mulberry, echoing Ovid.7LitCharts. O Pioneers! White Mulberry Tree Symbol Analysis The tree there is short-lived and not native to Nebraska, mirroring both the brief romance and the immigrant settlers.8LitCharts. O Pioneers! White Mulberry Tree Symbol Analysis
What Mulberry Means in the Victorian Language of Flowers
In the Victorian language of flowers, plants carried coded messages. The Victorians split the mulberry’s two meanings by fruit color. The white mulberry honoured someone of great intellect, prudence and judgment, as in Kate Greenaway’s 1884 guide.9flowerlexicon.com. White Mulberry: Symbolism, Victorian Meaning & Folklore The black mulberry meant “I shall not survive you,” a statement of intense love.10Tales by Trees. The Victorian Language of Trees One explanation ties the dark meaning to German folklore that the devil shone his shoes with mulberry roots.11thymewilltell.com. Munificent Mulberry Different guides did not always agree, so a message could be read differently depending on the book.
The Mulberry in Asian Myth and Shinto Practice
Chinese myth set a giant mulberry at the edge of the world. Fusang is a divine tree in the East, where the sun rises.12Wikipedia. Fusang An ancient text places it above the Yang Valley, where ten suns bathe.13BaiduWiki. Fusang Ten birds, usually ravens, lived in it, and each day one carried the sun while nine rested.14Wikipedia. Fusang A matching tree in the west, Ruomu, was where the sun set.15Wikipedia. Fusang
The real tree was revered too. The white mulberry was especially honoured in China because silkworms feed on its leaves.16thymewilltell.com. Munificent Mulberry In Chinese herbal tradition the fruit is a cooling tonic, sold today as a drink for health and long life.17Chinese Acupuncture & Herbology Clinic. The Mulberry Tree in Chinese Herbology
In Japan, mulberry became holy material. Early Shinto records from the 700s describe offerings of mulberry cloth, often paired with hemp.18Textile Society of America. A WISTERIA GRAIN BAG and other tree bast fiber textiles of Japan The white mulberry paper prayer strips tied to branches at Shinto shrines descend from those offerings.19Textile Society of America. A WISTERIA GRAIN BAG and other tree bast fiber textiles of Japan
Silk, Smuggling and the Spread of the Mulberry
Silk carried the mulberry around the world. Silk farming depends on mulberry leaves to feed the silkworms. Silkworms eat almost nothing else, so a silk farmer needs a steady supply of fresh leaves. Any region that wanted silk had to grow mulberries first.
Silkworms and mulberry trees may have reached Central Asia by about 2000 BCE, before the Silk Road.20PubMed Central. Silkworm cultivation predating the Silk Road in southern Central Asia (2000 BCE) Legend says in 552 two monks smuggled silkworms and mulberry seeds from China to Constantinople in hollow walking sticks.21Smithsonian Folklife Festival. The Silk Road: Connecting People and Cultures
Not every attempt worked. King James I sent silkworm eggs and mulberry seeds to colonial Virginia.22Library of Virginia. Silk Making Efforts in Colonial Virginia But silkworms disliked the leaves of local trees, labour was scarce, and tobacco proved easier.23National Park Service. Silk Production in the Seventeenth Century Virginia silk farming never took hold.24Library of Virginia. Silk Making Efforts in Colonial Virginia
Many old mulberries in British and American towns were planted during such silk schemes, so a large old tree near a manor may be a survivor of that era. White and black mulberries are often found together, though silkworms prefer white.
Mulberry in Sufi, Persian and Biblical Tradition
Persian musicians hear a prophet’s cry in the wood. In a legend from Khorasan in Iran, the prophet Zakariya hid inside a mulberry trunk to escape enemies.25Yale Journal of Music & Religion. The Mulberry Tree, the Birds and the Divine in the Music of the Dotār in Khorāssān (Iran) God required him to stay silent, and he made no sound even when they cut the tree apart.26Yale Journal of Music & Religion. The Mulberry Tree, the Birds and the Divine in the Music of the Dotār in Khorāssān (Iran) Musicians believe his held-back cries come out as music from the dotar, a lute made of mulberry wood.27Yale Journal of Music & Religion. The Mulberry Tree, the Birds and the Divine in the Music of the Dotār in Khorāssān (Iran) The body of the Persian tar is likewise carved from a block of mulberry wood.28Center for World Music. The Persian Tar
The mulberry is linked with the Bektashi Sufi order.29The Grammar of Matter. Fountain and Tomb… and Mulberry Tree: the Garden of Sheikh Zubair Haji Bektash Veli threw a flaming mulberry branch that grew into a huge tree said still to burn at its tip.30The Grammar of Matter. Fountain and Tomb… and Mulberry Tree: the Garden of Sheikh Zubair
The sycamine tree in Luke has often been identified as the black mulberry, not the sycamore.31Enjoying the Journey. Mustard Seeds and Mulberries Jesus says faith like a mustard seed could uproot it and plant it in the sea. Black mulberries have deep, stubborn roots, which strengthens the image.
Food, Medicine and Craft in Native American Tradition
The fruit of the red mulberry was everyday food. The Cherokee ate it fresh and as jam, juice and dumplings mixed with cornmeal.32McClung Museum of Natural History & Culture. #PlantOfTheMonth: Mulberry (Morus rubra) The Iroquois dried berries for travel or pressed them into cakes.33McClung Museum of Natural History & Culture. #PlantOfTheMonth: Mulberry (Morus rubra) The Comanche and Omaha ate the fruit fresh.34McClung Museum of Natural History & Culture. #PlantOfTheMonth: Mulberry (Morus rubra)
The tree was also medicine and material. The Cherokee made leaf tea for dysentery, weakness and urinary trouble, and the sap was put on ringworm.35United States Department of Agriculture. Red Mulberry Plant Guide The Seminole made hunting bows from the branches.36McClung Museum of Natural History & Culture. #PlantOfTheMonth: Mulberry (Morus rubra) Choctaw women spun bark into thread and wove cloaks.37Wild Ones: Native Plants, Natural Landscapes. Beyond the Bird Feeder: Mulberry Tree
These uses are traditional, not tested treatments. Unripe berries and other parts of the tree, including the milky sap, can upset the stomach or irritate skin, so check with a doctor before trying a remedy.
Red mulberry is native to eastern North America, while white mulberry came from Asia for silk and now grows wild. Leaf shape and fruit color help tell them apart, but the two hybridise, so neither is a perfect guide.
Shakespeare’s Tree and the Mulberry Bush Rhyme
Shakespeare’s tree became relics. After his mulberry was cut down, carvers like Thomas Sharpe sold keepsakes from its wood.38The Geneva Story. The Strange History of Shakespeare’s Mulberry Tree So many pieces appeared that most cannot be proved genuine, though a few are kept by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.39The Geneva Story. The Strange History of Shakespeare’s Mulberry Tree
The nursery rhyme’s origins are disputed. The first recorded version comes from James Orchard Halliwell in the 1800s.40American Songwriter. Behind the Meaning of the Traditional Nursery Rhyme, “Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush” A Wakefield prison governor said female Victorian inmates danced around a yard mulberry with their children.41Writing to be Read. Dark Origins – Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush That tree reportedly grew from a sprig from Hatfeild Hall.42Wikipedia. Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush