actually, mulberry was used by the Chinese in certain bows for limbs, as was bamboo, Korean bows also use bamboo,
I personally have used those,and hickory also,, the first five Turkish bows I ever built I used hickory as a core and mulberry for the tips.. after inspecting a Chinese bow, the core was mulberry and the tips were of two different larger ring porous woods ,
so I think (certain) larger ring porous wood can /has been used for larger horn bows . with the stresses spread out more evenly throughout the limb,,= larger bending radius, compared to the shorter bows with a much tighter bending radius=knee
mike is defiantly right about proper grain qualities and choice
note: I have dissected several ancient broken horn bows, a crab bow, a Turkish bow, and a few others and broken bows of my own,, after looking at the most bending sections of the limbs a noticeable amount of wood breakdown was evident, I think the more the stresses and the more the bows were shot the more the amount of wood ( cell) breakdown in that area,all bows showed some breakdown to a degree +/-