Morus ‘Trader’ – Mulberry

The story is that Bill Trader brought a mulberry tree with him when he migrated from Germany to Orisky, North Dakota in 1892. The tree is still alive and producing fruit and now cuttings are being taken by horticulturists to propagate the tree. It’s obviously sufficiently cold hardy to be grown throughout our area, and much longer lived than typical mulberries which often only survive a few decades. It’s probably an Asian Morus alba, certainly not our native M. rubra, having come from Germany, though Dirr states that M. rubra was introduced to Europe way back in 1629. So I suppose it could at the very least have some M. rubra genes. We are getting a look at this variety for the first time in 2024 and we’ll evaluate its likely parentage when we see it. Whatever its parentage the fruit supposedly has a good sweet/tart flavor, much like ‘Illinois Everbearing.’ It will be a while before we can assess the fruit, but mulberries are fast growers and precocious at producing fruit, so hopefully it will only be a few years time.