What tree is the paper mulberry? Let us get to know this plant.
Photo/ Leaf The ripe orange-red multiple fruit of the paper mulberry
Paper mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera) has always been both familiar and unfamiliar to me. What is familiar is that it accompanied me all through my growing years, because on the vacant land behind my home there always grew plenty of Spanish needles dotted with a few paper mulberry trees, and lately I have noticed that the paper mulberry seems to be found everywhere - by the roadside, in open fields, and on abandoned land, its traces can all be found.
The paper mulberry is distributed across the flatlands of the whole island of Taiwan, China and in inhabited spots of the low-altitude mountain areas. Perhaps it could also count as a shared memory tree of many Taiwanese children growing up? Unfortunately, our education has made us forget, or simply remain unaware of, the nature growing all around our daily lives - this is also why I feel unfamiliar with the paper mulberry. As for ecology, I seem to still be a babbling child; for so many long years I actually did not know the origins of the paper mulberry.
The first time I learned the name of the paper mulberry was one summer when I went to an Indigenous tribal village and got to know it through the introduction of a Tao (Yami) guide. At the time the guide picked a paper mulberry fruit that had just been washed by the rain for everyone to taste. Having never eaten a wild fruit, I actually felt quite uneasy at that moment - just what did that bright red wild fruit taste like?
I had expected it would carry a sour, astringent flavor! Unexpectedly, it turned out to have a surprising sweet fragrance, and in an instant I fell in love with this paper mulberry that hangs so many red fruits like candied hawthorn berries.
After returning home from the tribal village, I enthusiastically shared with my mother how interesting the tree behind our house was, but my mother said it was a "family-ruining tree." It turns out that the Hakka people also call the paper mulberry the family-ruining tree, because courtyards left untended after a family's fortunes decline will always grow paper mulberries. But the paper mulberry is also a pioneer that turns wasteland into forest, so calling it the family-ruining tree seems to do it a bit of injustice!
The paper mulberry is a native plant of Taiwan, China. In the book Ethnobotany of the Paiwan it is recorded:
"The paper mulberry is the most widely used forage plant; its branches and leaves were often taken to feed sheep, pigs and deer, and so it is also called the 'deer tree.' In earlier times, the Paiwan people would peel the bark of the paper mulberry to make bark cloth for sewing clothes, and also to make carrying straps. The sticky sap of the paper mulberry can be smeared on animal hides for tanning, though it must be tanned at least three times or more before the hide feels soft when worn."
The ripe fruit of the paper mulberry is an important food for birds such as the Japanese white-eye and the light-vented bulbul; insects and butterflies like to suck on it, and it is also one of the food sources for squirrels and Taiwan macaques. Some people say the paper mulberry's round fruits hang all over the whole tree like little bells, so it is called the "ding-dang tree." In addition, the bark of the paper mulberry is the main material for making xuan paper, and because of its fine quality it can also be used to print banknotes, so it is also called the "banknote tree."
Traces of the paper mulberry can also be found in Grandfather's Sea, a work by the Paiwan writer Syaman Rapongan, whom I very much like. The "snail tree" mentioned in the essay "Grandmother's Snail Tree" is the paper mulberry. Rapongan's grandfather said: "The paper mulberry is the most practical and most usable tree species in our lives; its bark can be taken to make bark clothing, rope, hats, bags, and it has many other functions."
As for why it is called the "snail tree," this comes from Rapongan's grandmother's knowledge related to nature and weather prediction. She predicted whether there would be heavy rain and flooding based on the number of leeches at the water's source, and before heavy rain she would cut down the leaves on the branchings of the trunks of several snail trees in the forest. Why cut down the leaves of the snail tree?
Because snails love to eat the leaves of the snail tree. After the heavy rain, the soil, rain and sunlight begin to break down the leaves, making them sweeter and tastier. Rapongan's grandmother described that flavor as very much like fa-leng (cured meat, with a bit of a stinky smell yet like bacon), the kind that becomes addictive once eaten. When nearby snails smell the scent they all come over, and in this way a large number of snails could be gathered.
Different ethnic groups, cultures, values and beliefs have given the paper mulberry so very many names. Some sound cute, some let you guess its practical use at a single hearing, and still others hide a rich ecological view of nature within the name; behind every appellation there exists a story. This involuntarily makes me recall how as a child I would often casually give names to flowers and grasses. It is just that today's social environment has caused everyone's ecological awareness to be weak. Since when did we stop keeping a curious mind about nature? And from when did I stop having innocent, fanciful imaginings?
Life lacks the stories we create ourselves; I have even rarely heard the legends and myths passed down to us by the elders! Perhaps this is a common weakness of our generation, no matter which ethnic group. Yet in my heart I still hope that one day we can carry on the legends of the previous generation, and write even more splendid stories of this generation.
