(Part 2 of 2)In Part 1 of this article (in the November Green Pages) David Wingate provided two reasons why he thinks the red mulberry is native to Bermuda: 1) detailed accounts from early settlers specify that a mulberry tree with delicious fruit was common and; 2) the red mulberry is native to the southeastern United States where it grows with other plants that are also native to Bermuda. Here, he provides the third reason and explains his project.***While every last vestige of Bermudas pre-colonial moist bottomland forest (where red mulberry would have been most likely to grow naturally) was cleared for agriculture, housing and roads from very early on in Bermuda’s post-colonial history, three of our most famous botanist/naturalists from the 19th century made specific mention that they found red mulberry in the rocky woodlands of the Walsingham tract. Two of those trees were re-located by myself in the mid 20th century and one has even managed to survive in competition with aggressive invasive flora such as the Fiddlewood, Surinam cherry, Brazil pepper and Chinese fan palm right into the 21st century.The Walsingham area has always been recognised as a refuge for rare native flora on account of its rugged, cave riddled topography which survived the onslaught of human land clearance better there than any other part of the Island. It was there that the last of the yellow wood trees survived, and there that the association of the Hackberry with the “white wood” of the early settlers accounts was first made.With the launch of the Bermuda Biodiversity project in February 1987 by the Natural History Museum at the Aquarium, a concerted effort has been underway to inventory what is left of our native heritage; to revisit the taxonomic status of those species that were considered to be endemic using modern methods of DNA comparison and to implement restoration and recovery programmes for those species that are most endangered. I am using this opportunity to re-examine the status of the mulberry in Bermuda.My project aims at locating and mapping as many of the mulberry trees growing on Bermuda as possible. It is already evident from public feedback that there are many more than I thought. Foliage from a representative selection of these trees will be collected for taxonomic identification to species and for a more refined taxonomic analysis using DNA analysis. Mulberries are still being widely propagated and disseminated in private gardens via garden clubs and plant nurseries, but as yet I am not even sure which species are still represented out of the three or four that have previously been recorded. Whether the supposedly relict mulberry from Walsingham will prove taxonomically distinct as a native subspecies or whether the modern mix of trees in gardens includes hybrids between the species remains to be determined.In America, hybridization between the aggressively invasive white mulberry and the native red mulberry is now so prevalent that it threatens the integrity of the American species. This could conceivably be happening in Bermuda too, but on the other hand, if it isn’t, our geographically isolated local red mulberry trees might be a reservoir for the pure stock.If the taxonomic and DNA evidence lend further support to my hypothesis, I would like to see the red mulberry more extensively propagated and promoted for planting in our nature reserves and gardens. It is, after all, a very attractive and fast growing tree with delicious fruit in the spring which attracts many birds including some of our spring migration specialities like the scarlet tanager and rose-breasted grosbeak.***If you have a mulberry tree on your property, please contact David Wingate by email: davidb.wingate@gmail.com. Mulberry trees have coarsely toothed, often lobed, glossy green leaves. The fruit are one to two inches long, resembling raspberries, and turn purplish-black when ripe. Mulberries, in Bermuda, bear fruit in the spring and in the fall.