The Kozo paper mulberry is showing its curious globular fruits beside the Systematic Beds.
One of only eight species, Broussonetia x kazinoki, is a deciduous tree or shrub endemic to Japan. It has ovate, downy leaves, which can be two or three-lobed. This specimen is a female, having globose flower heads with slender, pink styles. The fruits are woolly on the outer and pithy in the centre, and from these emerge individual sweet, sticky, orange seeds. The young growth and shoots are also pithy, and this species is easily propagated from heel cuttings. The young leaves are cooked as a vegetable in its native homeland. The genus takes its name from the French naturalist, TNV Broussonet, 1761-1807.