The paper mulberry (''Broussonetia papyrifera'',
syn. ''Morus papyrifera'' L.) is a species of
flowering plant
Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants t ...
in the family
Moraceae. It is native to Asia,
[''Broussonetia papyrifera''.]
Flora of North America. where its range includes
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the no ...
, China, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia,
Myanmar
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...
, and India.
It is widely cultivated elsewhere and it grows as an
introduced species
An introduced species, alien species, exotic species, adventive species, immigrant species, foreign species, non-indigenous species, or non-native species is a species living outside its native distributional range, but which has arrived there ...
in parts of Europe, the United States,
[ and Africa.] Other common names include tapa cloth tree.[
]
Origin
Paper mulberry was used among ancient Austronesians
The Austronesian peoples, sometimes referred to as Austronesian-speaking peoples, are a large group of peoples in Taiwan, Maritime Southeast Asia, Micronesia, coastal New Guinea, Island Melanesia, Polynesia, and Madagascar that speak Au ...
in making barkcloth. It originates from subtropical
The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical and climate zones to the north and south of the tropics. Geographically part of the temperate zones of both hemispheres, they cover the middle latitudes from to approximately 35° north a ...
regions in mainland Asia and is one of the best examples for the mainstream "Out of Taiwan" hypothesis of the Austronesian expansion
The Austronesian peoples, sometimes referred to as Austronesian-speaking peoples, are a large group of peoples in Taiwan, Maritime Southeast Asia, Micronesia, coastal New Guinea, Island Melanesia, Polynesia, and Madagascar that speak Au ...
. Various genetic studies have traced the origins of paper mulberry populations in the Remote Pacific all the way to Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the no ...
via New Guinea
New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torres ...
and Sulawesi
Sulawesi (), also known as Celebes (), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the world's eleventh-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Mindanao and the Sulu ...
. In the Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
, which was along the expansion path, paper mulberries are mostly descendants of modern introductions in 1935. Ancient introductions of paper mulberry presumably went extinct in prehistory due to their replacement with hand-woven fabrics, given that paper mulberry generally only survives under human cultivation. However, its absence in the Philippines further underlines its origins in Taiwan, and not within island Southeast Asia. Additionally, paper mulberry populations in New Guinea also show genetic inflow from another expansion out of Indochina
Mainland Southeast Asia, also known as the Indochinese Peninsula or Indochina, is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the west an ...
and South China
South China () is a geographical and cultural region that covers the southernmost part of China. Its precise meaning varies with context. A notable feature of South China in comparison to the rest of China is that most of its citizens are not n ...
.
It is believed to be the most widely transported fiber crop in prehistory, having been transported along with the full range of the Austronesian expansion, as opposed to most of the other commensal crops in Oceania. Paper mulberry is present in almost every island or island group in Polynesia, including Rapa Nui and Aotearoa
''Aotearoa'' () is the current Māori-language name for New Zealand. The name was originally used by Māori in reference to only the North Island, with the name of the whole country being ''Aotearoa me Te Waipounamu'' ("North Island and Sout ...
. Some populations have gone recently extinct after they stopped being cultivated, such as in the Cook Islands
)
, image_map = Cook Islands on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg
, capital = Avarua
, coordinates =
, largest_city = Avarua
, official_languages =
, lan ...
and Mangareva, although accounts and prepared barkcloth and herbarium
A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant specimens and associated data used for scientific study.
The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sheet of paper (calle ...
specimens of them exist in museum collections gathered by Europeans during the colonial era. They were spread by Polynesians primarily through vegetative propagation with cuttings and root shoots. They were rarely cultivated from seeds, as most plants were harvested prior to flowering, when the stems reach around in diameter, as described by 18th-century European accounts. If the feral plants reproduced sexually is unknown, as the plants are dioecious
Dioecy (; ; adj. dioecious , ) is a characteristic of a species, meaning that it has distinct individual organisms (unisexual) that produce male or female gametes, either directly (in animals) or indirectly (in seed plants). Dioecious reproducti ...
and require both male and female specimens to be present in one island. The tree was introduced to New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...
by early Māori
Māori or Maori can refer to:
Relating to the Māori people
* Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group
* Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand
* Māori culture
* Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...
settlers (oral histories mention the ''Ōtūrereao
In Māori tradition, ''Ōtūrereao'' was one of the great ocean-going, voyaging canoes that was used in the migrations that settled New Zealand.
See also
*List of Māori waka
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also ...
'', '' Tainui'' and '' Aotea'' canoes as being sources). The tree was commonly seen during the voyages of James Cook
James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean and ...
in the 1770s, however the tree likely became extinct by the 1840s, due to reduced cultivation and predation by pigs and cattle who fed on the tree. It was reintroduced to New Zealand from Japanese plants during European colonisation.
Description
This species is a deciduous
In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, ...
shrub
A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from tree ...
or tree
In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...
usually growing tall, but known to reach at times. The leaves are variable in shape, even on one individual. The blades may be lobed or unlobed, but they usually have toothed edges, lightly hairy, pale undersides, and a rough texture. They are up to about long. The species has male and female flowers on separate plants. The staminate inflorescence
An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are forme ...
is a catkin
A catkin or ament is a slim, cylindrical flower cluster (a spike), with inconspicuous or no petals, usually wind-pollinated (anemophilous) but sometimes insect-pollinated (as in '' Salix''). They contain many, usually unisexual flowers, arrang ...
up to long with fuzzy male flowers. The pistillate inflorescence is a spherical head up to about wide with greenish female flowers trailing long styles. The infructescence is a spherical cluster
may refer to:
Science and technology Astronomy
* Cluster (spacecraft), constellation of four European Space Agency spacecraft
* Asteroid cluster, a small asteroid family
* Cluster II (spacecraft), a European Space Agency mission to study th ...
wide containing many red or orange fruits. Each individual protruding fruit in the cluster is a drupe
In botany, a drupe (or stone fruit) is an indehiscent fruit in which an outer fleshy part ( exocarp, or skin, and mesocarp, or flesh) surrounds a single shell (the ''pit'', ''stone'', or ''pyrena'') of hardened endocarp with a seed (''kernel ...
.[
]
Uses
This plant has been cultivated in Asia and some Pacific Islands
Collectively called the Pacific Islands, the islands in the Pacific Ocean are further categorized into three major island groups: Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Depending on the context, the term ''Pacific Islands'' may refer to one of se ...
for many centuries for food, fiber
Fiber or fibre (from la, fibra, links=no) is a natural or artificial substance that is significantly longer than it is wide. Fibers are often used in the manufacture of other materials. The strongest engineering materials often incorporate ...
, and medicine.[
]
Barkcloth
Paper mulberry is primarily used in the Pacific Islands to make barkcloth (''tapa
Tapa, TAPA, Tapas or Tapasya may refer to:
Media
*Tapas (website), a webtoon site, formerly known as Tapastic
* ''Tapas'' (film), a 2005 Spanish film
* ''Tapasya'' (1976 film), an Indian Hindi-language film
* ''Tapasya'' (1992 film), a Nepalese f ...
'' in most Polynesian languages). Barkcloth can also be made from other members of the mulberry family ( Moraceae), including ''Ficus
''Ficus'' ( or ) is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes and hemiepiphytes in the family Moraceae. Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are native throughout the tropics with a few species extendi ...
'' (figs) and '' Artocarpus''. Barkcloth was also occasionally made from ''Pipturus
''Pipturus'' is a flowering plant genus in the nettle family, Urticaceae.
Selected species
* ''Pipturus albidus'' ( Hook. & Arn.) A.Gray ex H.Mann – ''Māmaki'' ( Hawaii)
* '' Pipturus arborescens'' ( Link) C.B.Rob., 1911
* ''Piptur ...
'' nettles, especially in Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...
. However, the highest quality of barkcloth was from paper mulberry.
Barkcloth was mainly used for clothing among ancient Austronesians and is traditionally made using characteristic stone or wooden beaters, which are among the most common artifacts found in Austronesian archaeological sites. Numerous archaeological remains of barkcloth beaters in southern China have been regarded as evidence that the pre-Taiwan Austronesian homelands were located in the region prior to the southward expansion of the Han Dynasty, particularly around the Pearl River Delta
The Pearl River Delta Metropolitan Region (PRD; ; pt, Delta do Rio das Pérolas (DRP)) is the low-lying area surrounding the Pearl River estuary, where the Pearl River flows into the South China Sea. Referred to as the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Ma ...
. The oldest such remains are from the Dingmo Site in Guangxi
Guangxi (; ; alternately romanized as Kwanghsi; ; za, Gvangjsih, italics=yes), officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (GZAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, located in South China and bordering Vietnam ...
, dated to around 7,900 BP. Barkcloth remained an important source of clothing fabrics in pre-colonial Melanesia, Polynesia, and parts of Indonesia. However, it has been mostly replaced by woven fiber clothing in most of Island Southeast Asia and Micronesia. It is still worn ceremonially in parts of Polynesia and Melanesia. It is also used to make bags and bedding.[
Although numerous names are used for paper mulberry throughout Austronesia, none are ]cognate
In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical ef ...
s, thus a Proto-Oceanic term cannot be reconstructed. In most of Polynesia, the term for barkcloth can be reconstructed from Proto-Nuclear-Polynesian ''*taba'', meaning "bark", with cognates including Wayan ''taba''; Tongan, Samoan, Mangareva, and Rarotongan ''tapa''; and Hawaiian ''kapa''. Other terms widely used for barkcloth and paper mulberry are derived from the Proto-Polynesian
Proto-Polynesian (abbreviated PPn) is the hypothetical proto-language from which all the modern Polynesian languages descend. It is a daughter language of the Proto-Austronesian language. Historical linguists have reconstructed the language using ...
reconstructed word ''*siapo'', with cognates including Niue
Niue (, ; niu, Niuē) is an island country in the South Pacific Ocean, northeast of New Zealand. Niue's land area is about and its population, predominantly Polynesian, was about 1,600 in 2016. Niue is located in a triangle between T ...
, Tongan, and Marquesan
The Marquesas Islands (; french: Îles Marquises or ' or '; Marquesan: ' ( North Marquesan) and ' (South Marquesan), both meaning "the land of men") are a group of volcanic islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France in t ...
''hiapo''; and Samoan and East Futunan ''siapo''. The term for barkcloth beater, however, can be reconstructed more extensively back to Proto-Malayo-Polynesian
Proto-Malayo-Polynesian (PMP) is the reconstructed ancestor of the Malayo-Polynesian languages, which is by far the largest branch (by current speakers) of the Austronesian language family. Proto-Malayo-Polynesian is ancestral to all Austrones ...
''*ikay'', with cognates including Uma ''ike''; Sa'a ''iki''; Bauan, Tongan, and East Futunan ''ike''; and Samoan and Hawaiian ''iʻe''.
In New Zealand, traditional Polynesian methods for producing barkcloth (''aute'') were retained by early settlers, despite the tree not growing as large in temperate New Zealand. Presumably the tree was used by early Māori
Māori or Maori can refer to:
Relating to the Māori people
* Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group
* Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand
* Māori culture
* Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...
for cloth, however by the 1770s, the primary use was to create a soft, white cloth used for fillets or in ear piercings by high-status men. Barkcloth textiles disappeared from use in the early 19th century, coinciding with the tree's disappearance from New Zealand.
Paper
It is a significant fiber crop
Fiber crops are field crops grown for their fibers, which are traditionally used to make paper, cloth, or rope.
Fiber crops are characterized by having a large concentration of cellulose, which is what gives them their strength. The fibers may b ...
in the history of paper
Paper is a thin nonwoven material traditionally made from a combination of milled plant and textile fibres. The first paper-like plant-based writing sheet was papyrus in Egypt (4th Century BC), but the first true paper, the first true papermaki ...
. It was used for papermaking
Papermaking is the manufacture of paper and cardboard, which are used widely for printing, writing, and packaging, among many other purposes. Today almost all paper is made using industrial machinery, while handmade paper survives as a speciali ...
in China starting some time between the 2nd and 8th century. '' Washi'', a Japanese handcrafted paper, is made with the inner bark, which is pounded and mixed with water to produce a paste, which is dried into sheets.[ It is also used to make '' hanji'', a Korean paper.
]
Other uses
The wood of the plant is useful for making furniture
Furniture refers to movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating (e.g., stools, chairs, and sofas), eating ( tables), storing items, eating and/or working with an item, and sleeping (e.g., beds and hammocks) ...
and utensils, and the roots can be used as rope
A rope is a group of yarns, plies, fibres, or strands that are twisted or braided together into a larger and stronger form. Ropes have tensile strength and so can be used for dragging and lifting. Rope is thicker and stronger than similarl ...
.[ The fruit and cooked leaves are edible.][
The fruit, leaves, and bark have been used in systems of ]traditional medicine
Traditional medicine (also known as indigenous medicine or folk medicine) comprises medical aspects of traditional knowledge that developed over generations within the folk beliefs of various societies, including indigenous peoples, before the ...
.[ For example, the bark and fruit of the species, known locally as ''jangli toot'', are used as a laxative and antipyretic in rural ]Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
.
The species is used as an ornamental plant
Ornamental plants or garden plants are plants that are primarily grown for their beauty but also for qualities such as scent or how they shape physical space. Many flowering plants and garden varieties tend to be specially bred cultivars that ...
. It tolerates disturbance and air pollution
Air pollution is the contamination of air due to the presence of substances in the atmosphere that are harmful to the health of humans and other living beings, or cause damage to the climate or to materials. There are many different type ...
, so it has been useful as a landscaping plant on roadsides. It is a pioneer species that easily fills forest clearings, and it has been considered for reforestation
Reforestation (occasionally, reafforestation) is the natural or intentional restocking of existing forests and woodlands ( forestation) that have been depleted, usually through deforestation, but also after clearcutting.
Management
A de ...
efforts.[ It grows well in many ]climate
Climate is the long-term weather pattern in an area, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorologi ...
types.[Morgan, E. C. and W. A. Overholt]
Wildland Weeds: Paper Mulberry, ''Broussonetia papyrifera''.
ENY-702. Entomology and Nematology. Florida Cooperative Extension Service. University of Florida IFAS. Published 2004, revised 2013.
Invasive weed
The ability of the plant to readily colonize available habitat, particularly disturbed areas, has helped it become an invasive species in some regions. It spreads rapidly when male and female individuals grow together and seeds are produced.[ ]Seed dispersal
In Spermatophyte plants, seed dispersal is the movement, spread or transport of seeds away from the parent plant.
Plants have limited mobility and rely upon a variety of dispersal vectors to transport their seeds, including both abiotic vector ...
is accomplished by animals that eat the fruits, and the plants can form wide, dense stands via their spreading root systems.[
This is considered to be one of the worst weeds in Pakistan, one of the most significant invasive plants on the Pampas in ]Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest ...
, and a dominant invasive in the forests of Uganda
}), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The ...
.[
The ]pollen
Pollen is a powdery substance produced by seed plants. It consists of pollen grains (highly reduced microgametophytes), which produce male gametes (sperm cells). Pollen grains have a hard coat made of sporopollenin that protects the gametop ...
is allergen
An allergen is a type of antigen that produces an abnormally vigorous immune response in which the immune system fights off a perceived threat that would otherwise be harmless to the body. Such reactions are called allergies.
In technical t ...
ic.[ It is reportedly a main culprit of inhalant allergy in ]Islamabad
Islamabad (; ur, , ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's ninth-most populous city, with a population of over 1.2 million people, and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital ...
, where the species is a very common urban weed.[Malik, R. N. and S. Z. Husain. (2007)]
''Broussonetia papyrifera'' (L.) L'hér. Ex Vent.: an environmental constraint on the Himalayan foothills vegetation.
''Pakistan Journal of Botany'' 39(4), 1045-53. The pollen allergy and asthma caused by this plant sends thousands of patients to hospitals in Islamabad during March. The species should not be taken to other areas without due consideration of the potential of male plants to shed their injurious pollen.
Gallery
Gelso da carta - autunno.JPG, Form
Broussonetia papyrifera - Botanischer Garten Freiburg - DSC06385.jpg, Pistillate flowers
Broussonetia papyrifera - fleurs mâles.jpg, Staminate flowers
Papiermaulbeerbaum blickwinkel.jpg, Fruit
Broussonetia papyrifera fruits.jpg, Fruit
Broussonetia papyrifera MHNT Texture of the trunk.jpg, Texture of the trunk
Starr 061106-1467 Broussonetia papyrifera.jpg, Preparing tapa
See also
* Domesticated plants and animals of Austronesia
References
External links
*
*
{{Taxonbar, from1=Q389185, from2=Q21977496
Moraceae
Plants described in 1753
Fiber plants
Medicinal plants of Asia
Flora of tropical Asia
Flora of China
Flora of Eastern Asia
Papermaking
Dioecious plants