Hi, I just moved into a new house and I'm trying to figure out everything that is growing in my yard from the previous owner. It's been mysterious and exciting! :) I have a fruit bush that has grown like crazy, it's currently about 8 feet. The berries look like black berries but the leaves don't look like a black berry leaf. What is crazy is that is seems the plant has a mixture of leaves, on one stem there is toothed lobed and toothed round leaves (pic). It's like a mutant! The black berries were about a half inch. I don't want to start plucking berries off of it and eating them until I know it won't kill me! ;) Let me know if you need any other pictures or information. thanks!
Thanks! Do you know how a plant can have two different types of leaves on it? I've never seen that before. I didn't think that could happen.
As a matter of fact, I believe your plant is either a Red Mulberry Morus rubra or a hybrid between the two (Morus alba and Morus rubra).
axillary fruit clusters in pic combined with shiny leaf tops are characteristic of alba, not rubra. could be a hybrid, I suppose, but picture strongly suggests alba. here's a good guide: https://www.extension.purdue.edu/extmedia/FNR/FNR_237.pdf
And there are many species with differently-shaped leaves on one individual plant. For example, here are all the species with the word "heterophylla" in the name in the USDA PLANTS database. That's just a small subset though. Leaves can be very "plastic" organs, variable in shape, size, thickness, texture, etc.
