Berberis vulgaris

Common barberry

Family: Berberidaceae · Type: shrub · Not Native

Common barberry is a naturalized shrub found in northwestern California in disturbed areas at elevations of 500 to 1,000 meters. Flowering from March to June, this plant produces yellow flowers in clusters of 10 to 20 blooms. Growing 1.5 to 3 meters tall with ascending to erect stems that feature single nodal spines 4 to 8 millimeters long, it forms a distinctive branching structure. Its deciduous leaves are obovate to oblong, 2 to 5 centimeters long, with fine teeth and 8 to 24 small spines along each leaf edge. The fruit is an elliptic red-purple berry 10 to 15 millimeters long.

Habitat: Disturbed areas

Bloom period: Mar-Jun

Elevation: 500-1000 m

Bioregions: NW

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