Mulberry is a perennial , depending upon the type of cultivation it’s efficiency and utility, the success of sericulture depends. Hence through this SlideShare the morphology of the plant is studied.

1. Semester -l, Paper –ll
Supervised by
Kuntamalla Sujatha mam.
Faculty of sericulture.
Presented by
Karam.Rajyalaxmi
MSc Sericulture
Batch 2023-2025
Brief presentation on morphology of mulberry plant

2. Morphology
Mulberry trees are perennial ,live for a number of years either in cultivated or
wild conditions. Depending on the type of cultivation,the plant is grown as a
bush,tree or a muddling.The branching nature of a plant is once again
influenced by type of cultivation,mode of training ,soil fertility, rainfall and
environmental conditions.

3. ● It grows as a tree or shrub,but in cultivation it is raised as bush by pruning.
● The plant is perennial,with highly branching root and shoot system with
primary, secondary and tertiary branches
● However the mulberry cultivation is aimed at more branching to produce
more leaf for silk worm reaing
● The trees attain a height of 22 - 25m with a girth of the trunk about eight
meters is case of morus serrata
Habitat

4. Morphology of mulberry plant
Stem :
● It is an aerial portion of the plant which supports
the foliage of the mulberry.
● The stem is divided in to nodes and internodes.
● The color of the bark of the stem varies form
green,grey to pink or brown with numerous
lenticells .
● Most of the branches are erect but some times
are trailing .
● In nature mulberry grows as big tree reaching a
height of 20 -25m with a girth of 8m.
● This character varies and depends upon the
species ,climate and origin.
● The Mysore local ,kanva-2and berhampur
varieties of morus indica are white to greyish
white in color

5. ● The mulberry root has tup -root ,lateral
roots and root hair.
● The hair is confined to top of the root.
● The root surface has many lenticels
● The root hair absorbs water and nutrients
form soil and lenticels perform respiration
of roots .
● The lateral and tap roots transport and
preserve water and nutrients.
● In general depending upon the soil
condition the roots penetrate to a depth
ranging form 10 to 50cm.
Root

6. ● Each axial of a leaf has a bud .Some times two
more independent buds on side of the main
buds are found and called accessory buds.
● The auxiliary buds are green which turn to brown
out later stage.
● The auxiliary buds of the scale leaves of the
main bud peep out of the bud as though they are
the accessory buds .
● Each bud is covered by 2 -3 layers of scaly
leaves of brown colour with hard texture .
● These are called scale buds/ buds are protected
by the covering of young leaves which are in
turn ,covered by older and oldest leaves.
● Vegetative buds give rise to male or female
inflorescences in addition to leaves.
Buds:

7. Leaf:
● It is the most economic unit in the sericulture industry ,which serves as the
main food for silk worms
● It should be the aim to increase the leaf yield per unit area.
● Leaves must be succulent ,smoth ,lessfibrous and palatable to silkworms .
● The leaf size of mulberry varies in different species and varieties .
● The leaves are simple ,alternate ,stipulate petiolate and entire or variously
lobed .
● The leaves are alternate and ⅔ or ⅖ ranked with different internodal lengths .

8. ● The leaf may be glossy or scabrous in texture .
● In general hybrid leaves are unlobed while local varieties are mostly lobed
● The number of lobes per leaf varies from on to sever and sujanpur -5,the leaf
is highly dissected with numerous lobes.
● The size of lamina nearly measures 30 cm in length along the mid rib and
about 25cm breadth at the widest region.
● The thickness of the leaf is about 100 -200mm
● The shape of the leaf is generally ovate or ovate - cordate .
● The leaf tip is generally of four types i.e ,acute ,double acute ,acuminate and
long acuminate.

9. ● The leaf margin may be serrate, dentate
,dentate - serrate,serrate- dentate.
● The leaf base is generally three nerved
.phyllotaxy varies according to species.
● It is alternate or spiral. Indian varieties are
five ranked.
● The idioblasts contains cystolith in which
non- crystalline lime,CaCo3 are present.
● The hybrids leaves such as kanva-3, s-
54,s-36, s-30, s-34 are characterised by
large leaves while local bear only small
leaves.

10. Inflorescence:
● In mulberry it is a catkin . In mulberry more than ten flowers grow around
rachis,being attached to the axial region of new shoots and such type of
inflorescence is called spike or catkin.
● The plant are generally dioecious but the occurrence of monoecious plants is
also not uncommon.
● The male catkin is usually longer than female catkin measuring 2.5 to 5 cm long .
● The inflorescence is auxiliary and branched in certain cases .
● Usually they are in clusters
● The female catkin is auxiliary in position measuring 1.5 to 3.5 cm long.

11. Flower:
● The male flower are loosely attached to the peduncle.
● The flower consists of four perianth leaves arranged in two whorls with imbricate
aestivation
● These are green ,homochlamydous.
● The margins and outer surface of perianth leaves are sometimes provided with
hair.
● The stamens are four,arranged opposite to perianth leaves .
● The filaments of the stamens are bent inward in bus condition.
● Each stamen has a broad filament and a narrow top on which two anther lobes
are fixed .
● The pollen grains are round ,dry light and dust like with smooth exine .

12. ● When the bud opens ,the stamens
which lie in curved position become
straghtened suddenly and the
androcium opens with great force and
pollen are scattered from another .
● This is an adaptation to wind
pollination.
● After pollination male catkin becomes
pink, dried and drops off as whole .
● The female flower also got similar
number of perianth leaves arranged in
same manner as in male flower.

13. Fruit:
● In mulberry cross pollination takes place by
wind .
● After fertilization the style and stigma fall
down and the ovarian wall swells and
changes fleshy making fruit .it is called
sorosis.
● After fruit formation ,inner part of the ovarian
wall becomes endocarp which shows
lignifications and covers seed.
● The sorosis is green in colour at first and
later becomes red and dark purple.
● The fruits are ovoid to sub- globules in shape
measuring 5 cmin length.

14. Seeds:
● The mulberry seed is oval shaped with flat
surface at the micropyle region
● One edge an elongated streak hilum is found
the end of hilum has a small pore known as
micropyle through which seed absorbs water
when soaked .
● The seed coat has two layers ,outer hard and
brittle testa and inner tegma .
● The seed kerned consists of endosperm and
embryo which lies curved in the endosperm
● The embryo has a primary axis and two
cotyledons
● During germination the shoot and radical
forms the roots.

15. Thank you