Morus nigra, called black mulberry[3] is a species of flowering plant in the family Moraceae that is native to southwestern Asia, where it has been cultivated for so long that its precise natural range is unknown.

[5] The fruit is a compound cluster of several small drupes that are dark purple, almost black when ripe, and they are 2.5 cm (1 in) in diameter.

[8] Black mulberries (Morus nigra) are thought to have originated in the mountainous areas of Mesopotamia and Persia (i.e. Armenian highlands).

Now they are widespread throughout Armenia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, India, Pakistan, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Israel, and Turkey.

In the Books of Maccabees, it is noted that the Greeks used the fruit to provoke their war elephants in preparation for battle against Jewish rebels during the Maccabean Revolt in the 2nd century BCE.