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Mahonia aquifolium
Elena Torres & Santiago Moreno
Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA
Mahonia aquifolium: Appearance of the shrub in autumn
Etymology
Mahonia: After B. McMahon, an American horticulturist from the 18th-19th century
aquifolius, -a, -um: with acute or spiny leaves
Description
Habit: Evergreen, ramose, glabrous shrub 0.5-2.5 m tall that spreads by underground stolons.
Leaves: alternate, persistent, 10-25 cm long, compound, with a petiole 1-6 cm long; blade imparipinnate, with 2-5 pairs of seated leaflets; leaflets 2.5-6 cm long. x 2-4 cm wide, ovate to elliptic, with spinous-dentate margins, leathery, glossy adaxially.
Flowers: hermaphrodite, actinomorphic, hypogynous, small, yellow, fragrant, arranged in racemes or panicles with bracts, with 15 perianth pieces 7-8 mm long, 6 stamens and a unicarpellous gynoecium with a superior ovary.
Fruit: subglobose to ellipsoid blackish-blue glaucous berry 8-10 mm long.
Phenology
It flowers in spring; fruits mature in summer.
Geographic origin
Native to SW Canada and the NW United States.
Observations
It is often cultivated in parks and gardens. Its fruits are used to flavour drinks and desserts. It is used as a topical treatment for psoriasis.
The individuals growing on this campus usually have a white mycelium on their leaves that indicates the presence of powdery mildew (Microsphaera berberidis (DC.) Lév. = Erysiphe berberidis DC.) (see Picture Gallery).
It is propagated from seeds or semi-hardwood cuttings.
Mahonia aquifolium: Appearance of the shrub in autumn
