[4] It is widely cultivated elsewhere and it grows as an introduced species in New Zealand, parts of Europe, the United States,[4] and Africa.

It originates from subtropical regions in mainland Asia and is one of the best examples for the mainstream "Out of Taiwan" hypothesis of the Austronesian expansion.

Various genetic studies have traced the origins of paper mulberry populations in the Remote Pacific all the way to Taiwan via New Guinea and Sulawesi.

Additionally, paper mulberry populations in New Guinea also show genetic inflow from another expansion out of Indochina and South China.

Some populations have gone recently extinct after they stopped being cultivated, such as in the Cook Islands and Mangareva, although accounts and prepared barkcloth and herbarium specimens of them exist in museum collections gathered by Europeans during the colonial era.

They were rarely cultivated from seeds, as most plants were harvested prior to flowering, when the stems reach around 1 in (2.5 cm) in diameter, as described by 18th-century European accounts.

[6][7] The tree was introduced to New Zealand by early Māori settlers (oral histories mention the Ōtūrereao, Tainui and Aotea canoes as being sources).

The blades may be lobed or unlobed, but they usually have toothed edges, lightly hairy, pale undersides, and a rough texture.

The pistillate inflorescence is a spherical head up to about 2 cm (0.79 in) wide with greenish female flowers trailing long styles.

Numerous archaeological remains of barkcloth beaters in southern China have been regarded as evidence that the pre-Taiwan Austronesian homelands were located in the region prior to the southward expansion of the Han Dynasty, particularly around the Pearl River Delta.

[12] Barkcloth remained an important source of clothing fabrics in pre-colonial Melanesia, Polynesia, and parts of Indonesia.

[15] High quality Korean Hanji and Japanese Washi are typically made from the inner bark of the paper mulberry, which is pounded and mixed with water to produce a paste, and dried into sheets.

[4] Seed dispersal is accomplished by animals that eat the fruits, and the plants can form wide, dense stands via their spreading root systems.

[18] The pollen allergy and asthma caused by this plant sends thousands of patients to hospitals in Islamabad during March.