--- title: Fruitless Mulberry in Reno and Carson City: Tree Guide url: https://battleborntreeservice.com/tree-guide/fruitless-mulberry/ business: Battle Born Tree Service address: 6301 US Highway 50 East, Carson City, NV 89701 phone: 775.232.8243 hours: Office Monday-Friday 8:30 am-5:00 pm; phones answered seven days a week; 24-hour emergency service credentials: ISA Certified Arborist WE-11728A on staff; Nevada Business License # 20131580674; fully insured type: Tree service (removal, crane work, pruning, stump grinding, defensible space, snow removal, firewood) --- - [Home](https://battleborntreeservice.com/) - [Tree guide](https://battleborntreeservice.com/tree-guide/) - Fruitless mulberry # Fruitless mulberry Fruitless mulberry is a dense, round-topped shade tree with soft wood and wide, shallow roots, planted on valley-floor lots where heat and alkaline soil defeat other trees. It is tough, but its limbs break in wind and ice and its roots lift paving, so a large one by a house or walk needs an arborist's look. - **Botanical name:** Morus alba (fruitless, male selections) - **Type:** Fast-growing deciduous shade tree from China - **Size:** 30 to 50 feet tall, dense and round-topped (Utah State University) - **Hardiness:** Zones 5 to 9; zones 6b to 7b here - **Where it is found:** Older yards and street strips on the valley floors, about 4,000 to 5,100 feet - **Known weak points:** Soft, weak wood, wide shallow roots, ice damage, low shade tolerance The tree known as fruitless mulberry is a male selection of white mulberry, Morus alba, which is why it does not stain the sidewalk with berries. This page covers how to identify it, where it grows in our elevation bands, the damage we read about for it and when pruning, cabling or removal is the right call. ## How do you identify a fruitless mulberry? The leaves are alternate, glossy, dark green and two to four inches long, with a coarsely toothed edge that ranges from plain to deeply lobed, often on the same tree. Break a stalk and milky sap appears, the USDA Forest Service notes. The crown is dense, round and low-branching. The bark is thin and shallowly furrowed. In a fruitless tree there are no berries; Utah State University says male trees are fruitless and generally preferred, and birds love the fruit of the female. - Glossy leaves, some lobed and some not, on the same tree - Milky sap when a stalk breaks - Dense round crown - No fruit on the male selections ## Where does it grow in Reno, Carson City and the Carson Valley? It is a valley-floor tree. Utah State University rates it for zones 5 to 9 and high for drought, salt, poor drainage and alkalinity, a profile that matches Reno (4,505 feet, zone 7b), Carson City (4,680 feet, zone 7a) and Dayton (4,384 feet, zone 7a). Minden is zone 6b and still inside the range. Higher up, where Incline Village is at 6,437 feet and zone 6b, the species sits near the cold edge of its range and the Tahoe lot trees are conifers. Fernley (4,154 feet) and Fallon (3,965 feet) are zone 7a and sit in the warm part of the range. ## What goes wrong with it here? USU calls it weak as a street tree with soft, weak wood that tends to warp. Limbs can break in wind, ice and wet snow. Look at [storm and snow-load breakage](https://battleborntreeservice.com/tree-guide/storm-and-snow-load-breakage/) for how those failures happen. The Forest Service describes a wide, spreading root system of a taproot and laterals, with most lateral roots in the upper one to three feet of soil. On a lot with a sidewalk, driveway or sewer line close to the trunk, that matters; see [tree roots, sidewalks and sewer lines](https://battleborntreeservice.com/guides/tree-roots-sidewalks-sewer-lines/). Mulberry is also rated not good under power lines, and its low shade tolerance means a tree crowded by buildings or a bigger tree will thin. ## Pruning, cabling or removal: which is the right call? Dead wood and hanging limbs come off any time. Other pruning is best in late winter, when the tree is dormant. Because the wood is soft, a few clean cuts that lighten the long limbs do more good than a hard cutback; see [why topping is not pruning](https://battleborntreeservice.com/guides/why-tree-topping-is-not-pruning/). [Cabling and bracing](https://battleborntreeservice.com/tree-services/cabling-bracing/) can help a tree with a good trunk and one weak union. Removal is the usual answer where the trunk or roots are decayed, a major limb has split from the main stem over a house, or roots are damaging a driveway and sewer line. [Stump grinding](https://battleborntreeservice.com/tree-services/stump-grinding/) follows removal. For firewood, call the office for availability and pricing. ## What does Battle Born Tree Service do about a mulberry? We look at the whole tree, not only the part that worries you, and the free estimate lays out pruning, cabling or removal. The crew is eight people, two of them ISA Certified Arborists, and the phone line is staffed seven days a week at [775.232.8243](tel:775.232.8243). We do not plant replacement trees. ### Sources - [Utah State University Extension: Tree Browser, White Mulberry (Morus alba)](https://extension.usu.edu/treebrowser/catalog/mulberry-white) (read October 17, 2026) - [USDA Forest Service, Fire Effects Information System: Morus alba](https://www.fs.usda.gov/database/feis/plants/tree/moralb/all.html) (read October 17, 2026) - [USDA Agricultural Research Service: USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023 (PRISM, Oregon State University)](https://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/) (read October 17, 2026) ### Talk to the office [775.232.8243](tel:775.232.8243) | Monday to Friday | 8:30 am - 5:00 pm | |---|---| | Saturday and Sunday | Office closed, phones answered | Phones answered seven days a week. 24-hour emergency service. [Free estimate](#quote) ### Keep reading - [Silver maple](https://battleborntreeservice.com/tree-guide/silver-maple/) - [Black locust](https://battleborntreeservice.com/tree-guide/black-locust/) - [Tree roots, sidewalks and sewer lines](https://battleborntreeservice.com/guides/tree-roots-sidewalks-sewer-lines/) - [Tree trimming and pruning](https://battleborntreeservice.com/tree-services/tree-trimming-pruning/) - [Firewood and wood chips](https://battleborntreeservice.com/tree-services/firewood-wood-chips/) - [Warning signs before a tree fails](https://battleborntreeservice.com/guides/warning-signs-tree-failure/) ### Terms on this page [Alkaline soil](https://battleborntreeservice.com/glossary/alkaline-soil/) [Arborist](https://battleborntreeservice.com/glossary/arborist/) [The full glossary](https://battleborntreeservice.com/glossary/) ## Questions people ask Still have a question? Call [775.232.8243](tel:775.232.8243). Phones are answered seven days a week. ### Why is it called fruitless mulberry? It is a male white mulberry selection. Utah State University notes that male trees are fruitless and generally preferred, so there are no berries to drop. ### Will mulberry roots damage my sidewalk or pipes? They can, because the roots are wide and sit near the surface. The arborist looks at the distance to paving and lines and tells you what applies to your tree. ### Does mulberry make good firewood? Utah State University rates the wood as medium-grade fuel. Whether we have any is a question for the office at [775.232.8243](tel:775.232.8243); we publish no wood types or terms.