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Berberis veitchii Schneid.

Modern name

Berberis veitchii C.K.Schneid.

Synonyms

B. acuminata Veitch, not Franch.

An evergreen shrub of open, spreading habit, with bright red young wood. Leaves two to four together in the axils of stout, three-parted spines, which are 34 to 1 in. long; 3 to 6 in. long, narrowly lance-shaped, stalkless, glabrous, dark green; the margins cartilaginous, and armed with slender spiny teeth. Flowers brownish yellow, produced in clusters of four to eight from the leaf-axils of the previous year’s shoots; each flower 34 in. across, solitary on a slender stalk 1 to 114 in. long. Fruit oblong, nearly 12 in. long, black, covered with bluish bloom.

Discovered by the French missionary Delavay in Central China, in 1882, this fine barberry was not introduced to cultivation until 1900, when Wilson collected seeds in W. Hupeh. From these, plants were raised by Messrs Veitch at Coombe Wood, which flowered in 1904. The species is hardy, ornamental and distinct.



From the Supplement (Vol. V)

The buff-yellow flowers of this species, coupled with the spreading habit and red young growths, serve to distinguish it from B. gagnepainii.

Genus

Berberis

Other species in the genus