Flora of North America species comparison

The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Berberis bealei

Beale's barberry, Chinese mahonia, leatherleaf mahonia
Habit Shrubs, evergreen, 1-2 m. Stems monomorphic, without short axillary shoots.
Bark

of 2d-year stems tan, glabrous.
Leaves

5-9-foliolate;

petioles 2-8 cm.
Leaflet

blades thick and rigid;

surfaces abaxially smooth, shiny, adaxially dull, gray-green;

terminal leaflet stalked, blade 6.5-9.3 × 4-7 cm, 1.3-2.3 times as long as wide;

lateral leaflet blades ovate or lance-ovate, 4-6-veined from base, base truncate or weakly cordate, margins plane, toothed, with 2-7 teeth 3-8 mm tipped with spines to 1.4-4 × 0.3-0.6 mm, apex acuminate.
Spines

absent.
Inflorescences

racemose, dense, 70-150-flowered, 5-17 cm;

bracteoles ± corky, apex rounded to acute.
Berries

dark blue, glaucous, oblong-ovoid, 9-12 mm, juicy, solid.
Bud

scales 11-13 mm, persistent.

Berberis bealei
Phenology Flowering fall–winter (Dec–Mar).
Habitat Open woodlands and shrublands
Elevation 100-500 m (300-1600 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AL; GA; NC; VA; native; Asia (China) [Introduced in North America]
[WildflowerSearch map]
Discussion

Berberis bealei is commonly cultivated; although it rarely escapes, it is locally naturalized in the southeastern United States. It is resistant to infection by Puccinia graminis.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 3.
Parent taxa Berberidaceae > Berberis
Sibling taxa
B. amplectens, B. aquifolium, B. canadensis, B. darwinii, B. dictyota, B. fendleri, B. fremontii, B. haematocarpa, B. harrisoniana, B. higginsiae, B. nervosa, B. nevinii, B. pinnata, B. piperiana, B. pumila, B. repens, B. swaseyi, B. thunbergii, B. trifoliolata, B. vulgaris, B. wilcoxii
Synonyms Mahonia bealei
Name authority Fortune: Gard. Chron. 1850: 212. (1850)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



Type/paste one or more Latin names into the boxes above; matching taxa will show up below the box as you type. You can use the up/down arrow keys to move through the list.

(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Fabaceae, Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

Choose a data source: Flora of North America

The species comparison tool is brought to you by:
Northwest Wildflowers