Morus notabilis
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Credits
Tom Christian & Peter Coles (2022)
Recommended citation
Christian, T. & Coles, P. (2022), 'Morus notabilis' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Trees to 15 m tall; dioecious. Bark greyish to dark brown. Branches with rounded, occasionally elliptic lenticels; internodes long. Winter buds conical to ovoid, 1–6(–8) mm, subglabrous, greyish brown. Stipules linear to lancelate, 1.5–3 cm, pubescent. Leaves broad ovate to orbicular, 7–15(–25) × 6–12(–20) cm; upper surface dark green, glabrous, somewhat scabrous; lower surface pale green, glabrous or pubescent along veins; base usually cordate; margins regularly serrate with distant teeth; apex obtuse to acuminate. Male inflorescences usually 2 per node, 3–7 cm, peduncle 2–3 cm; male flowers with ovate calyx lobes. Female inflorescences 1 per node, 3–5 cm, peduncle 3–4 cm long; female flowers densely arranged, with oblong calyx lobes, style conspicuous (0.5–1 cm), branched; stigma 2, papillate; ovary ovoid, pubescent. Syncarp maturing white or purplish, 3.5–4 cm. Flowering late spring to early summer, fruting early to late summer. (Wu, Zhou & Gilbert 2003; Razdan & Dennis Thomas 2021).
Distribution China Sichuan, Yunnan
Habitat Broadleaved evergreen forests.
Schneider described Morus notabilis in Plantae Wilsonianae (Sargent 1913, Vol. Ill, p. 293) based on Wilson’s 1908 collection from western Sichuan (W 919). This was likened to ‘a very glabrous variety of M. cathayana’ but was treated as distinct ‘on account of the distinctly longer style and the long peduncles’ (Sargent 1913). While it isn’t clear whether this species was ever established in cultivation, both Wilson and Forrest introduced it. Trees labelled M. cathayana, but which are sparsely pubescent to the point of dubiety, may belong here.