Berberis aquifolium, holly-leaf Oregon grape

9/20/2014 10:46:57 AM

Berberis aquifolium, Oregon grape, holly leaved barberry.

Jepson says the name is from Arabic through Latin, that it is the Arabic name for barberry.

Some sources have Mahonia aquifolium, an older name. Southwest Colorado Wildflowers reports some of the quibbling over the name of the genus.

B. aquifolium is the state flower of Oregon.

I have very few photos of B. aquifolium. It is native to Spokane County but I suspect the little patch in Drumheller Springs Park is introduced, not native to the park. It is said to be shade intolerant. It is located in deep shade south of south pond. It would have been behind the houses that have been removed from the park. There are many introduced plants in the area.

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Flora of North America has B. aquifolium in most of Washington State, except the southeast corner; in Idaho north of Lewiston; in Oregon west of The Cascades, and in bits of southern British Columbia, western Montana and northern California.

If I had known what an interesting flower it is I would have more images. Next year.

Leaves

The leaves are pinnately compound. A single leaf is made up of several leaflets off a leaf stem in a pattern the botanists say is feather-like [pinnate]. The other common compound leaf form is ‘palmate’, somewhat like the palm of the hand with fingers spread.

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The leaves are not deciduous. They don’t fall off the plant. For this reason the plant is called evergreen even though the leaves turn red in winter.

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The green color is returning.

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Jepson, UC Berkeley, warns us that the spines of the leaves ‘… may inject fungal spores into skin.”

The inflorescence is a raceme. The flowers opening at the base of the inflorescence were once the leading bud at the top of the inflorescence.

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Flora of North America speaks of ‘bracteoles’. The definitions differ but they agree that bracteoles are bracts that protect the bud and that they are directly associated with the flower. There will be a bract on the stem below the point where the pedicle of the flower rises and bracteoles at the top of the pedicle, enclosing the bud. When the flower opens the bracteoles will be behind the flower.

I suppose the sources don’t use the term calyx with this plant because the flower is complicated. The collected bracteoles look like a calyx to me.

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Flower

Paul Slichter says the flower has ‘bilobed petals’. They are not very bilobed. There is a distinct notch in each petal.

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E-FLORA BC: Electronic atlas of the flora of British Columbia says the inflorescence is a raceme and that the racemes are ‘clustered’.

The photo below doesn’t show clustering clearly but clustering is suggested.

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This photo of buds does show clustering clearly. Note the water in the pond behind the buds.

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My photos seriously fail me with respect to the flower parts.

E-FLORA BC says the flower ‘segments’ are in 6’s.

Flora of North America has no text on the arrangement of petals and sepals. It does have a drawing for an illustration [click on ‘illustration’] that suggests the arrangement is complicated.

http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=233500223

Jepson, UC Berkeley, says “… sepals 9 in 3 whorls of 3; petals 6 in 2 whorls of 3…”

I have no photos that demonstrate this complexity.

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Fruit

Jepson says it has 2 to 9 ovules.

The fruit is edible. Few large seeds.

Slichter says First Americans ate them raw, made wine, cooked jelly. Roots made yellow dye.

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Roots

Roots often toxic.

The plant rises from rhizomes.

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Some miscellaneous comments from the sources:

 “… contact with filament causes stamen to snap inward, possibly to deposit pollen on pollinator.”

EFLORA BC: “its occurrence increases with increasing summer drought and continentality.”

Flora of North America: “… anther filaments with distal [distant] pair of recurved lateral teeth.” [I’ll have to see it to believe it.]

The text below is from Montana Plant Life on a different Berberis, MAHONIA REPENS, but the information may apply to Berberis aquifolium.

Burke says Berberis ripens is present in Spokane County and much of Eastern Washington. It has inconspicuous spines on its leaves. The spines on the leaves of Berberis aquifolium are prominent.

http://montana.plant-life.org/

Edible Uses:
Berries of creeping mahonia are very sour but edible when fully ripe. As with other mahonias that produce fine large berries, creeping oregon grape has been used to make apple-mahonia jelly, wines, pies, and the flowers make an excellent lemonade substitute. The berries are produced in substantial numbers, blue with a white dusting. They are edible after a frost or two which increases their fructose content and decreases their pectin content. Early European settlers and Native People used the berry for food. The fruit has a strong, distinctive flavor, but is not edible until frozen in autumn. While berries are still green in summer, they are mildly toxic, though mainly the potentially toxic alkaloids are present in the leaves and stems. There is no case of toxic response in humans eating the berries, though this may be partly because they are unpalatable until they are fully ripe and been through a freeze or two, by which time they are tasty and perfectly safe. The berries are also high in Vitamin C and have often been used to treat scurvy.

Caution:
Creeping mahonia contains the alkaloids berberine and oxyacanthin. These compounds are present throughout leaves and stems, and are toxic to cattle. A rash to human skin may occur from spines on the leaves.