Red mulberry (Morus rubra) provided fruits that Native Americans used fresh for beverages, breads, cakes, dumplings, and preserves. They also dried the fruits and mixed them with animal fat for pemmican, a paste of dried and pounded meat mixed with melted fat and other ingredients. Native Americans also used the plant medicinally as a worming agent, remedy for dysentery, laxative, and emetic. It also serves as a host plant for mourning cloak larva.