Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Berberis vulgaris

Flowers. Photographer Teun Spaans, unknown place

Flowering stem. Photographer S Drozd Lund, Denmark

Fruit and leaves. Photographer Algirdas, unknown place

Shrub. Photographer Teun Spaans, unknown place

Line drawings. USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913.  An illustrated flora of the northern United States, Canada and the British Possessions. Vol. 2: 127.

Common name

Common Barberry, Barberry

Family

Berberidaceae

Where found

Weed. Southern Highlands mainly between Mittagong and Bundanoon. Kosciuszko National Park. Occasionally elsewhere.

Notes

Introduced deciduous shrub to 2.5 m high. Leaves on the main stems reduced to spines, usually deeply divided into 3 spines, each 10–25 mm long. Fruit fleshy. Stems hairless. Leaves clustered on short shoots, 2–6 cm long, 8–25 mm wide, margins toothed with numerous bristly teeth. Flowers yellow, about 5 mm in diameter, with 6-12 petals in 2 or 3 whorls. Flowers in many-flowered clusters 5–7 cm long. Fruit bright red, oblong to oval, 9–12 mm long, edible.

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Berberis~vulgaris (accessed 4 January, 2021)