Japanese Mahonia

It is an evergreen shrub growing to 2 m (7 ft) tall by 3 m (10 ft) wide. The foliage is pinnate, glossy dark green above, paler beneath, and sharply toothed. Each leaf usually has six to eight pairs of leaflets together with a single terminal leaflet. The plant produces new shoots regularly from the base, so it is clothed in foliage at all levels. The small, scented, yellow flowers are borne from autumn through winter into spring. The inflorescences are 25 cm or more long, at first arching and then pendant. Blue or black fruits develop in spring and summer.

The plant is much grown as an ornamental shrub, and for use in landscapes. It is of value for its bold foliage, flowers in flowering season, and as a groundcover landscape shrub. Its spiny foliage invite use in security hedging. Berberis japonica has received the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. The hybrid between it and Berberis oiwakensis subsp. lomariifolia is also a popular garden plant. Known as Berberis × hortensis, several cultivars have been developed from it, including 'Charity', 'Winter Sun' and 'Lionel Fortescue'. A hybrid with Berberis napaulensis var. napaulensis (M. siamensis), called Mahonia × lindsayae 'Cantab', though less well known, is a useful garden plant and also holds an Award of Garden Merit. Berberis bealei, native to mainland China and also widely cultivated, is usually treated as a separate species, but in the past has been listed as a cultivar of Berberis japonica. Its most obvious differences from B. japonica are in shorter, upright flowering racemes and wider leaflets.

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