The Berberidaceae is a small family in the British Isles. Since 2023 it has 2 genera instead of 3 and 15 species.
They are all attractive garden plants and have some other uses as you can find out in this post!
You can find a link on the Scientific name from the Plant Atlas Online which I use for the habitat and other interesting facts (with blue back-ground). Other websites are used for information on different uses, such as Wikipedia, which I have also used for most of the pictures (in Wikipedia Commons).
Pictures of Epimedium spp. by Mike Poulton with thanks! Information about where the plants originate from and parts of the world where they have been introduced, comes from RBG Kew; Plants of the World Online as well as the latest correct scientific name. Please use the link for a worldmap!
Discovered a good website from the Botanical Society of the British Isles for general information and distribution maps. See BSBI website: https://bsbi.org/plants/berberidaceae
Contents:
Berberidaceae
Berberis spp.
Berberis and Wildlife benefits
Berberis vulgaris or Barberry FBBC
- B. aggregata or Clustered Barberry
- B. microphylla (syn. B. buxifolia) or Box-leaved Barberry
- B. darwinii or Darwin’s Barberry FBBC
- B. × stenophylla (Berberis darwinii × empetrifolia) or Hedge Barberry FBBC
- B. gagnepainii or Gagnepain’s Barberry FBBC
- B. glaucocarpa or Great Barberry
- B. julianae or Chinese Barberry FBBC
- B. thunbergii or Thunberg’s Barberry FBBC
- B. wilsoniae or Mrs Wilson’s Barberry FBBC
- B. x frikartii (Berberis candidula x B. verruculosa) hybrid found in FBBC
more Berberis formerly known as Mahonia spp. or Oregon-grape
Berberis aquifolium or Oregon-grape
- B. × decumbens or Newmarket Oregon-grape
- Berberis japonica (synonym Mahonia japonica) was recorded in the FBBC
Epimedium spp.
Epimedium alpinum or Barren-wort
Berberidaceae or Barberry family
The Berberidaceae are a family of 18 genera worldwide, of flowering plants commonly called the barberry family. The family contains about 700 known species, of which the majority are in the genus Berberis.
In the B.I., there are 2 (formerly 3) genera and 10 species of Berberis. Also 2 species of Mahonia, which are now actually included in Berberis since 2023 and just 1 species of Epimedium. All are non-native/ neophytes, except for Berberis vulgaris which is probably native or known as an archaeophyte.
Berberis spp.
Several species of Berberis are favoured as garden shrubs, grown for such features as ornamental leaves, (often early) yellow or orange flowers, and red or blue-black berries. Numerous cultivars and hybrids have been selected for garden use. Many deciduous species, such as Berberis thunbergii and B. vulgaris, are noted for their attractive pink or red autumn colour. In some evergreen species from China, such as B. candidula and B. verruculosa, which don’t occur in the wild in the B.I., the undersides of the leaves are brilliant white, a feature valued horticulturally.
Berberis species can infect wheat with stem rust, a serious fungal disease of wheat and related grains. Berberis vulgaris (European barberry) serves as alternate host species of the rust fungus responsible, the fungus Puccinia graminis. For this reason, cultivation of B. vulgaris is prohibited in many areas.
Low-growing Berberis plants are also commonly planted as pedestrian barriers. Taller-growing species are valued for crime prevention; being dense and viciously spiny, they are effective barriers to burglars; accordingly, they may be planted below vulnerable windows, and used as hedges. Many species are resistant to predation by deer.
Berberis and Wildlife benefits
Berberis species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species, including the moths barberry carpet moth (Pareulype berberata), and mottled pug (Eupithecia exiguata).
Many species of Berberis are early spring nectar and pollen sources for bumblebees often visited by queens in March and April. These dense, thorny shrubs offer vital shelter for nesting and, in addition to supporting bees, provide berries that attract birds. (from The Guardian )
Key Details on the Berberis-Bumblebee Relationship:
- Essential Food Source: Berberis (barberry) flowers are rich in nectar and pollen, serving as a crucial, early-season forage for hungry queen bumblebees as they emerge from hibernation.
- Top Species: Berberis darwinii (Darwin’s barberry) is highly recommended for attracting bumblebees, often buzzing with activity during its April-May flowering period. Berberis julianae and Berberis wilsonii are also noted for supporting pollinators.
- Key Timing: These shrubs are often more reliable than other early spring flowers, like crocuses, which may pass before bees fully emerge.
- Garden Benefits: Berberis provides a dense, spiny, and secure habitat for birds, while the nectar supports honeybees and solitary bees in addition to bumblebees.
More uses can be found with the individual species below.
Berberis vulgaris or Barberry flowers (By Stefan.lefnaer – Wikipedia Commons) below habitat and fruit (By Arnstein Rønning – Wikipedia Commons)
Berberis vulgaris or Barberry (deciduous)
A deciduous shrub of hedgerows, coppice, graveyards, banks, cliffs, and waste ground, and by railways and canals. Some records are assumed to be bird-sown.
The native range of this species is Europe to W. & N. Iran.
B. vulgaris is considered native or archaeophyte in England, with pollen found from Neolithic deposits at Grimes Graves (West Norfolk) and Wales (Mercer, 1981). It was cultivated in medieval times and was later widely planted for hedging. As its native range has now been completely obscured by these plantings, all records are mapped without status.
Its deleterious effect on wheat crops was appreciated before it was known to be a host of the rust Puccinia graminis and consequently it was eradicated from many hedgerows in the 19th century. However, widespread planting has led to a marked increase in records since the 1960s.
The flowers are a source of nectar and pollen for honey and bumble bees in May.
The edible berries, though rich in vitamin C, have a very sharp or sour flavour and are not widely consumed because the thorny shrubs make them difficult to harvest.
The flowers, leaves and shoot tips have also been eaten.
In Europe, the berries have been traditionally used as an ingredient in making jam. The berries are high in pectin which makes the jam congeal as it cools after having been boiled.
Apparently the plant has been widely cultivated for hedges in New Zealand and can be incorparated in mixed hedges elsewhere but probably not in wheat growing areas! See above in pink area.
A decoction of the plant has been used as a folk medicine to treat gastrointestinal ailments and coughs, although its use has been limited due to the bitter taste of the bark and root.
Several parts of the plant have been used for dyeing.
The native range of this species is E. Qinghai to Central China.
- B. microphylla (syn. of B. buxifolia or Box-leaved Barberry (evergreen)
Its edible blue-black berries are harvested for jams, but are eaten fresh too.
The calafate (it’s Spanish common name) is grown commercially for its fruit, potential medical uses and as a garden plant or bonsai. Its wood is used to make a red dye. The cultivar Berberis microphylla ‘Nana’ is widely available as a garden shrub, and is also used in commercial plantings as a low spiny hedge to discourage intruders, but it does not fruit.
- B. darwinii or Darwin’s Barberry (evergreen)
A spiny, evergreen shrub which grows in woodland and scrub, on hedgebanks, railway verges, waste ground, roadsides, pavements, alleyways, walls and as an occasional relic of cultivation.
The native range of this species is Central & S. Central Chile to S. Argentina.
Berberis darwinii was first described in 1835 by Charles Darwin during the voyage of the Beagle. It was one of many named in honour of Darwin.
An attractive shrub to about 3m in height if left unchecked, with dark glossy green, broadly oblong, sparsely-spined leaves. Drooping racemes of rich orange flowers, tinged red in bud, are produced in mid and late spring, and sometimes again in autumn. These are followed by blue-black berries in autumn. The Royal Horticultural Society has given the species its Award of Garden Merit.
Its berries provide an additional food source for birds.
Chemicals present in its bark are currently being investigated in relation Alzheimer’s Disease therapy.
Edible, Medicinal and Other Uses:
Fruit – raw or cooked and used in preserves. An acid but very pleasant flavour, children seem particularly fond of the fruit [K= Ken Fern from PFAF]. When fully ripe, the fruit loses most of its acidity and makes very pleasant eating[K]. Unfortunately there is a lot of seed compared to the amount of flesh and this does detract somewhat from the pleasure of eating it[K]. The fruit goes very well raw in a muesli or cooked in a porridge[K].
The root bark is tonic. Berberine, universally present in all parts of Berberis species but especially the rhizomes, has marked antibacterial effects, especially upon the urinary system. Since it is not appreciably absorbed by the body, it is used orally in the treatment of various enteric infections, especially bacterial dysentery. It should not be used with Glycyrrhiza species (Liquorice) because this nullifies the effects of the berberine. Berberine has also shown antitumour activity.
A yellow dye is obtained from the root and bark.
Barberry can be used as a hedge, providing dense foliage that offers shelter for wildlife. Additionally, its deep roots can help with soil stabilization.
Plants are very amenable to trimming and can be used as a formal hedge. They also make a very good informal hedge, their long arching branches looking especially attractive when in flower or bearing fruit. The plants tolerate maritime exposure, though they are slow-growing.
- Flowers are rich in nectar and pollen: attracting bees and other pollinators.
- Barberry produces edible berries that are a food source for birds and other wildlife. The dense, thorny branches provide good shelter and protection for nesting and roosting birds.
- Barberry shrubs’ dense structure and leaf litter can offer overwintering sites and shelter for invertebrates.
Similar uses as B. darwinii above!
Berberis × stenophylla as well as the cultivar ‘Corallina Compacta’ have an AGM. There is also a prostrate cultivar: ‘Prostrata’.
- B. gagnepainii or Gagnepain’s Barberry (evergreen)
- B. glaucocarpa or Great Barberry (semi-evergreen)
- B. julianae or Chinese Barberry (evergreen)
A large evergreen shrub, widely planted in parks and gardens, especially for hedging and more recently as an additional food source for birds. It is naturalized on walls, rock outcrops, waste ground, along roadsides, railways, footpaths and stream banks.
Berberis julianae grows to a height of 3 metres, as a dense bush with spiny obovate leaves, suitable for hedging. Flowers are yellow, tinged with red, borne in clusters of up to 25 flowers. Berries are elliptical, dark purple, almost black, with a white bloom, up to 6 mm long.
It makes a lethal, very spiny hedge!
This plant has gained the Royal Horticultural Society‘s Award of Garden Merit.
A spiny deciduous shrub, widely grown in parks, gardens and amenity planting, occurring as a relic of planting and a garden throw-out in woodland, hedgerows, churchyards, on pavements, by walls, roadsides, railway-banks, canals, footpaths and on waste ground. It reproduces by seed and is occasionally bird-sown, becoming abundant in suitable habitats, for example on rocky slopes near Llandudno (Caernarvonshire).
The native range of this species is Central & S. Japan.
Berberis thunbergii is widely grown as an ornamental plant, both in Japan and elsewhere in the temperate Northern Hemisphere. Numerous cultivars have been selected, including plants selected for yellow, dark red to violet, or variegated foliage, erect growth (for hedge use), and dwarf size. In Brazil, the plant is popularly known as Japanese barberis, and is widely cultivated in hedges and flower beds.
The following have gained the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit:
- B. thunbergii f. atropurpurea ‘Atropurpurea Nana’
- B. thunbergii f. atropurpurea ‘Concorde’
- B. thunbergii f. atropurpurea ‘Dart’s Red Lady’
- B. thunbergii f. atropurpurea ‘Golden Ring’
- B. thunbergii f. atropurpurea ‘Harlequin’
- B. thunbergii f. atropurpurea ‘Rose Glow’
- B. wilsoniae or Mrs Wilson’s Barberry (deciduous)
A small deciduous shrub, widely grown in gardens, and found on sand dunes, rocky grassland, railway sidings, in hedgerows, shrubberies, on pavements and waste ground, occasionally becoming naturalized through being self- and bird-sown.
This beautiful species was introduced by Ernest Wilson in 1904 and was named after his wife; it is commonly grown in gardens for its fruits and autumn foliage. It was first recorded from the wild in 1941 (Llaneltud, Merionethshire).
The native range of this species is SE. Tibet to S. Central China and N. Myanmar.
It is a mound-forming, deer-resistant shrub, with blueish-green leaves that turn red in autumn and yellow flowers that produce translucent pink fruit. A number of cultivars are available.
- B. x frikartii (Berberis candidula x B. verruculosa) a hybrid found in FBBC (evergreen)
This hybrid has 2 main cultivars mentioned on the RHS website:
A vigorous evergreen shrub approximately 1m high, with a dense, arching habit, thorny stems, attractive drooping shoots and spiny, glossy dark green leaves that are pale white to pale grey-green beneath, flushed red in winter. Produces pale yellow flowers to 1.5cm across in late spring, followed by blue-black berries in autumn.
A vigorous evergreen shrub to 1.2m high, with a dense, arching habit, thorny stems and spiny, glossy dark green leaves that are pale grey-green beneath. Produces pale golden yellow flowers to 1.5cm across in late spring, followed by blue-black berries in autumn. Foliage turns red in autumn and winter.
Epimedium spp. or Barren-wort flowers with young foliage (both pictures by Mike Poulton)
Epimedium spp. or Barren-worts
Epimedium species are deciduous or evergreen hardy perennials. The majority have four-parted “spider-like” flowers in spring.
The majority of the 70 species listed in Wikipedia (Plant Atlas of the World Online)are endemic to China, with smaller numbers elsewhere in Asia and a few in the Mediterranean region.
There are 6 garden hybrids listed in Wikipedia. The following three are hybrids of E. alpinum which is the only species growing wild in the B.I., described below:
- E. × cantabrigiense Stearn, hybrid between E. alpinum and E. pubigerum
- E. × rubrum Morr., hybrid between E. alpinum and E. grandiflorum
- E. × warleyense Stearn, hybrid between E. alpinum and E. pinnatum subsp. colchicum
Some varieties and hybrids have been in Western cultivation for the last 100 to 150 years. There is now a wide array of new Chinese species being cultivated in the West, many of which have only recently been discovered, and some of which have yet to be named. There are also many older Japanese hybrids and forms, extending the boundaries of the genus in cultivation.
The cultivar ‘Amber Queen’ is a recipient of the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit
Epimedium alpinum or Barren-wort
A deciduous, perennial herb with far-creeping rhizomes, formerly planted in gardens and now found in a variety of habitats, either planted or as a garden throw-out.
Although E. alpinum was grown by Gerard, in 1596, and for centuries thereafter; it is now rarely planted and has been replaced by other Asiatic species and cultivated hybrids.
The native range of this species is Austria to W. Balkan Peninsula.
An evergreen, rhizomatous perennial, to 25cm in height. Foliage is glossy and finely-toothed, bronze in spring turning mid-green and finally red tones in autumn. Racemes of pendant flowers appear in spring with dark, purple-red sepals and yellow short-spurred petals.
Mahonia spp. or Oregon-grape
Mahonia is a formerly accepted genus of approximately 70 species of shrubs or, rarely, small trees with evergreen leaves in the family Berberidaceae, native to eastern Asia, the Himalaya, North America, and Central America.. They are closely related to the genus Berberis and as of 2023 the majority of botanical sources list it as a synonym for Berberis.
However from Wikipedia (below the paragraph ‘Taxonomy’):
‘Mahonia is very closely related to Berberis, and included in it by many botanists. However, recent DNA-based phylogenetic research has reinstated Mahonia, though with a handful of species transferred into the newly described genera Alloberberis (formerly Mahonia section Horridae) and Moranothamnus (formerly Mahonia claireae). Species of Mahonia and Berberis can be hybridised, with the hybrids being classified in the genus × Mahoberberis.’ It depends mainly also which classification system is being used. See link here under Plants of the World Online from RBG Kew.
Berberis aquifolium (Syn: Mahonia aquifolium) or Oregon-grape
An evergreen shrub which spreads rapidly by stolons, often planted for ornament or game cover in estate woodlands, copses, and linear plantations or along hedgerows or roads where it can become well established through its suckering habit. It is also self-sown or dispersed by birds.
The native range of this species is SW. Canada to N. California.
in Cultivation:
Mahonia aquifolium is a popular plant in shady or woodland plantings. It is valued for its striking foliage and flowers, which often appear before those of other shrubs. It is resistant to summer drought, tolerates poor soils, and does not create excessive leaf litter. Its berries attract birds.
Numerous cultivars and hybrids have been developed, of which the following have gained the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit:
- M. × wagneri ‘Pinnacle’ (B. aquifolium × Berberis pinnata)
- ‘Apollo’
The small purplish-black fruits, which are quite tart and contain large seeds, are edible raw after the season’s first frosts.
- They were included in small quantities in the traditional diets of Pacific Northwest tribes, mixed with salal or another sweeter fruit. Today, they are sometimes used to make jelly, alone or mixed with salal.
- Oregon-grape juice can be fermented to make wine, similar to European barberry wine folk traditions, although it requires an unusually high amount of sugar.
The inner bark of the larger stems and roots of Oregon grape yield a yellow dye. The berries contain a dye that can be purple,blue, pink, or green depending on the pH of water used to make the dye, due to the berries containing a naturally occurring pH indicator.
Some indigenous peoples of the Northwest Plateau use Oregon grape for indigestion.
The plant contains berberine and reportedly has antimicrobial properties similar to those of goldenseal.
Berberis × decumbens (= Berberis (syn) Mahonia aquifolium × repens) or Newmarket Oregon-grape
A creeping, strongly stoloniferous evergreen shrub recorded on roadside verges, in roadside coppices and planted woodland, probably in places where it was originally planted for game cover or where it has spread from planted stock. The hybrid appears to be fertile, but there are no detailed studies.
The garden origins of this hybrid are obscure; it arose as seed on M. aquifolium plants and these progeny were for a long time considered as varieties of that species. It was described from near Newmarket (Cambridgeshire) in 1973, where it has been known for many years.
Berberis japonica (synonym Mahonia japonica) or Japanese Mahonia (this is recorded in the FBBC)
The native range of this species is Taiwan.
An erect evergreen shrub to 2m tall, with large, dark green leathery pinnate leaves to 45cm long, with up to 19 sharp-toothed, slender leaflets, and small, fragrant pale yellow flowers in spreading or drooping sprays to 25cm long, from late autumn to early spring, followed by blue-black berries
Berberis japonica has received the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit.