Berberis aquifolium (formerly Mahonia aquifolium) is among the tallest of an informal subgroup within Berberis known commonly as the Oregon grapes (note: not actually grapes). This upright-growing species can sometimes exceed 4.5m (15 ft.) in height, and hence Berberis aquifolium is commonly known as tall Oregon grape or tall mahonia.
Tall Oregon grape can be found growing in dry forests, rocky outcrops, and shrublands from southern British Columbia to northern California, and east to Montana and Idaho.
Like all of the former Mahonia species, the leaves are pinnately compound. Five to eleven ovate glossy-green leaflets are margined by sharp spines, much like English holly leaves (Ilex aquifolium). The sweetly-fragrant yellow blossoms appear in January locally, when their bright colour very much contrasts with our typical grey winter sky. Tall Oregon grape may continue flowering until May. Arranged in tightly-packed racemes, the hermaphroditic flowers can be either self-pollinated or insect-pollinated. Berberis aquifolium blossoms are the state flower of Oregon.
By late summer, the blossoms are replaced with clusters of deep blue spherical berries. These berries are 6-10 mm (to ~0.5 in.) in diameter, and appear to be coated with a whitish bloom. They taste more tart than sweet, but they are very much edible and I think juicy and nice enough to eat out of hand. When cooked, their flavour is compared to that of black currants.
Tall Oregon grape has a rich ethnobotanical heritage. In Food Plants of British Columbia Indians, Part 2/Interior Peoples (British Columbia Provincial Museum, 1978), Nancy Turner notes that regional indigenous peoples have long eaten the berries fresh or mashed into cakes that are then dried. According to Plants of Southern Interior British Columbia, edited by Roberta Parish, Ray Coupé, and Dennis Lloyd (Lone Pine, 1996), the Okanagan, Nlaka’pmx, Secwepemc and St’at’imc peoples of southern interior British Columbia have known for quite some time that the berries can be made into jelly. This preserve is often used as an accompaniment to meats; recipes to make the jelly can be found online. Traditional medicines made from the roots were/are used to treat tuberculosis, hemorrhaging, and stomach ailments; to purify the blood; to improve digestion; and to wash eyes. The stem tips have a traditional use of soothing stomach aches. A steam bath infused with the roots and leaves was used to treat yellow fever, but that disease is now rarely a concern in North America. Finally, tall Oregon grape has use as a dye plant: the bright yellow inner bark and roots yield a yellow to green dye, the leaves yield a green dye, and the berries yield a dye that is dark purple-blue to dark green.
Berberis aquifolium was introduced to Europe in 1823 (Parish, Coupé, Lloyd), where it was cultivated as an ornamental. Several hybrids and cultivars have have been recognized with the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit, including Berberis × wagneri ‘Pinnacle’ (a hybrid of Berberis aquifolium and Berberis pinnata) and Berberis aquifolium ‘Apollo’.
Hi Daniel, I was wondering why do you think RHS still lists it as Mahonia and not Berberis? They have it listed as a synonym. Thanks Karen
Hi Karen, sorry for the tardy reply. I was actually on vacation last week!
When changes are agreed-upon by some, it takes a while for them to cascade and propagate. Give it a few years!
Thanks Daniel, I hope you had a great vacation!
Beautiful! I’d love to try them in Chutney with mangoes, apples, or peats. Probably not possible from Connecticut.
Hope
A fascinating plant for sure. The prettiest part for me are the leaves that occasionally turn red. Not just red but extremely bright waxy red that when you see it causes one to stop pick it up and look. It can be the whole plant, a stem of leaves – or just a single red leaf. Other colors might be yellow or brown.
What causes these uncommon colors in the leaves?
Ramping up of anthocyanins, I suspect, when chlorophyll has fully retreated. That’s the “what is happening”, but as to why there is such density of colour, I’d guess something at the cellular / tissue level contributing. Maybe a thicker leaf lends itself to more pigment deposition?
Oregon grape is sold here in nurseries and seems to thrive in a lot of gardens in southern Maryland. Some consider it should be on the “invasive plant” list.
Such a lovely native plant. Here in To it barely survives. I have tried growing it several years all die back in the winter. A friend was able to grow hers on the back her house to a large shrubs. The best specimens I have seen are in BC gardens.
All the species of Berberis contain alkaloids (mostly related to berberine) that are strongly antibacterial. It is not recommended that they are taken regularly as the gut flora can be seriously compromised. The fruit usually has the lowest amounts but all the other parts that are used medicinally (leaf, root, bark, wood, flowers) should be used sparingly and infrequently.
I wonder. Why not in Connecticut? When I first arrived in Switzerland I was amazed to see how they cherish my homestate flower. They use it brilliantly in glossy green low hedges with yellow spring flowers to rival the Mediterranean use of mimosa. Where we let it get out of hand and scraggle upwards they keep a close cut on it encouraging it into bushy and leafy growth. It really deserves its AGM.
have mixed salal berries with oregon grapes…perfect blend of tart/sweet…juice of incomparable color!