American mulberry

See under (def 2).
the edible, berrylike collective fruit of any tree of the genus Morus.
a tree of this genus, as M. rubra (red mulberry or American mulberry) bearing dark-purple fruit, M. nigra (black mulberry) bearing dark-colored fruit, or M. alba (white mulberry) bearing nearly white fruit and having leaves used as food for silkworms.
noun (pl) -ries
any moraceous tree of the temperate genus Morus, having edible blackberry-like fruit, such as M. alba (white mulberry), the leaves of which are used to feed silkworms
the fruit of any of these trees
any of several similar or related trees, such as the paper mulberry and Indian mulberry

a dark purple colour
(as adjective): a mulberry dress

n.

late 14c., developed from 13c. morberie, or cognate Middle High German mul-beri (alteration by dissimilation of Old High German mur-beri, Modern German Maulbeere); both from Latin morum “mulberry, blackberry,” + Old English berie, Old High German beri “berry.” The Latin word probably is from Greek moron “mulberry,” from PIE *moro- “blackberry, mulberry” (cf. Armenian mor “blackberry,” Middle Irish merenn, Welsh merwydden “mulberry”). Children’s singing game with a chorus beginning “Here we go round the mulberry bush” is attested from 1820s, first in Scotland.

Heb. bakah, “to weep;” rendered “Baca” (R.V., “weeping”) in Ps. 84:6. The plural form of the Hebrew bekaim is rendered “mulberry trees” in 2 Sam. 5:23, 24 and 1 Chr. 14:14, 15. The tree here alluded to was probably the aspen or trembling poplar. “We know with certainty that the black poplar, the aspen, and the Lombardy poplar grew in Palestine. The aspen, whose long leaf-stalks cause the leaves to tremble with every breath of wind, unites with the willow and the oak to overshadow the watercourses of the Lebanon, and with the oleander and the acacia to adorn the ravines of Southern Palestine” (Kitto). By “the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees” we are to understand a rustling among the trees like the marching of an army. This was the signal that the Lord himself would lead forth David’s army to victory. (See SYCAMINE.)