Silkworm thorn is a spiny East Asian relative of mulberry with round red fruit, and its leaves have long been fed to silkworms in China. It isn't native to the United States, where its best-known relative is the Osage-orange. It's also called Chinese mulberry or cudrang.
Appearance
- Growth form
- A deciduous shrub or small tree up to about 20–26 ft (6–8 m), with a dense, rounded head of thorny branches.
- Leaves
- Leaves are 1.5–4 in (4–10 cm) long, dark green and smooth. Some are plain oval; others have three shallow, rounded lobes at the tip.
- Flowers
- Male and female flowers grow on separate trees. Both are small green balls about 1/3 in (8 mm) across, held in the leaf joints of new shoots in summer.
- Fruit
- A round cluster fruit up to about 1.5 in (4 cm) across that ripens red. It's edible and can be made into wine.
Look-alikes
White mulberryMorus alba
Mulberry fruits are long and oval and ripen dark in early summer. Silkworm thorn fruits are round, ripen red later in the year, and the branches carry thorns.
Why they get mixed upBoth are in the mulberry family and have leaves that vary in shape.
Where it lives
- Typical habitats
- Thickets
- Forest edges
- Orchards and gardens
- Range
- Native to central and southern China, Korea, and Vietnam. It isn't native to the US.
Name and classification
- About the name
- It was long known as Cudrania tricuspidata before being moved into the same genus as Osage-orange.
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- LCLeast ConcernLow risk of extinction
Culture and stories
- Culture and stories
- In China the bark has been used for paper and a reddish-yellow dye, and the tough wood for making bows.
- Tanzhe Temple near Beijing takes part of its name from this tree, called zhe in Chinese.
More species to explore
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