The flowers are single-sex catkins; male catkins are long, and female catkins long. Male and female flowers are usually on separate trees although they may occur on the same tree. The fruit is long; in the species in the wild it is deep purple, but in many cultivated plants it varies from white to pink; it is sweet but bland, unlike the more intense flavor of the red mulberry and black mulberry. The seeds are widely dispersed in the droppings of birds that eat the fruit.