Family Moraceae, composed of about 1,000 species of deciduous or evergreen trees in about 40 genera, found mostly in tropical and subtropical regions.
Plants of the family contain a milky latex and produce multiple fused fruits. Edible fruits grow on the common mulberry (genus Morus ), fig (in the largest genus, Ficus ), and breadfruit . Silkworms (see silkworm moth ) feed almost exclusively on the leaves of the white mulberry ( M. alba ). Among the ornamentals in the family are the paper mulberry and the Osage orange ( Maclura pomifera ). Other species include the India rubber tree , which is often placed in office lobbies, and the wide-spreading banyan tree.