Mulberry varieties were recently added to the mulberry collection (φ: 46° 50′ 88.33″; γ: 15° 62′ 20.73″) at Villa Pohorski dvor, University of Maribor’s Department of Botany and Plant Physiology, under the European Horizon ARACNE project. This diversification includes additional Morus alba and M. indica reference varieties from ARACNE partners at CREA Padua, Italy, IMIDA Murcia, Spain, and SCS Vratsa, Bulgaria, as well as 42 local Slovenian genotypes (95 trees). Green cuttings were taken from monumental mulberry trees across different regions in Slovenia in 2023, rooted in a fogging system, and cultivated in the local nursery Dolinšek before being planted in November 2024.
Established in 2015 through Hungarian-Slovenian research collaboration on silkworm larva development and health, fed with local Hungarian and Slovenian Morus alba (white mulberry) genotypes, this living mulberry gene bank is organized into sections for silk production, local historical genotypes, and varieties for fruit production and processing (M. alba, Morus indica, Morus nigra, and hybrids Morus alba × Morus rubra).
As a key component of the ARACNE project, the collection supports moriculture training and silkworm rearing. The training covers basic morphological characteristics and the ecological benefits of mulberry trees. Participants gain practical skills in tree care, including pruning, fertilizing, and leaf harvesting.
The mulberry collection serves as an educational platform for “Moriculture and Sericulture,” offering diverse mulberry genetics for sustainable silk production, enhancing local biodiversity, and providing ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes.