Berberis nervosa

Cascades oregon grape

Family: Berberidaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Cascades oregon grape is a California native shrub found in northwestern California, northern Sierra Nevada, San Francisco Bay Area, and northern South Coast Ranges in conifer forest at elevations below 2,000 meters. Flowering from March to June, this plant produces yellow flowers in open clusters up to 15 centimeters long. Growing with spreading to erect stems 10 to 60 centimeters tall, it forms dense clusters of foliage. Its compound leaves are crowded at stem tips, with 7 to 23 lanceolate leaflets featuring sharp serrated edges and small spines along the margins. The fruit is a distinctive blue-purple berry 8 to 12 millimeters in diameter, adding visual interest to the shrub.

Habitat: Conifer forest

Bloom period: Mar-Jun

Elevation: < 2000 m

Bioregions: NW, n SNH (Sierra Co.), SnFrB, n SCoR

California counties: Humboldt, Siskiyou, Mendocino, Marin, Del Norte, Santa Clara, Sierra, Trinity, El Dorado, Lake, Monterey, Sonoma, Santa Cruz, San Benito, San Mateo, Tehama, Napa, Contra Costa

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.