Name that tree(no pic-more fun)

[Dazed_Lily]

I know... show us a picture ! Well, it's too late at night(yeah, that's it!).
Really, I just noticed this tree tonight with red fruit that looks like raspberries and they turn deep dark purple/black. I squeezed one and got red juice on my fingers. It had no smell. I think the birds are eating them. What tree has raspberry like 'fruit' that turns dark purple ?

[Rebecca]

Google "Mulberry", you'll find it. I consider it an obnoxious weed! Only the female trees fruit, my one is setting fruitss now, but they won't be ripe and falling into every conceivable crevase and pots with soil for another month or so. Every berry have a zillion seeds and every one of them will sprout. If left unchecked for more than one growing season they are impossible to pull out and you have to dif them up and then pray you get the entire root or they come back. You can not kill the trees byt just cutting them down, you have to totally remove the stumps and use a commercial grade stump killer to boot. The wood isn't much good for anything because it is a soft wood. The berries are eatable and make a decent pie, cobler and jellies. Need a lot of sugar though! They are also used in wine making.

Now the male trees are too bad; they make a nice open shade tree. Their catkins can be a bit of a nusience, but at least they don't last long, stain everyhting purple or sprout and grow a new tree!

They are my second most dispised tree in the garden area. The first is the Black Walnut! And it isn't the tree as much as the squirrels who gather and hide the nuts and forget where they put them all! Their wood is great for building any kind of structure as well as furniture as it is a very hard wood, with great graining and a natural dark finish. I have a short cane made from a branch off of one of the trees by the trash can bin, but I need another one, longer and thicker to use as a walking stick/staff. Will have to check out the trees growing in places they don't belong to see if I can get a branch straight and long enough to use. The nuts are good in baking, very hige in oild. The hulls from the nuts can be used to stain unfinished woods (also your habds and clothing!) It is an oil based stain so it fairly permanent!




Rebecca