Plant: Leatherleaf Mahonia
Mahonia · Berberis bealei
Size: 3 gal
Light
Bloom
Mature size
More about this plant
A coarse, erect, multi stemmed broadleaf evergreen shrub of four to ten feet tall and three to eight feet wide, with rigid olive green odd pinnately compound leaves whose leaflets are edged with stiff spines. Lemon yellow racemes open in winter and early spring and are a valuable source of nectar and pollen for bees, followed by globose blue black berries in summer that birds take. It grows in partial to deep shade in well drained acidic soil, tolerates drought and salt, and resists deer. Note that North Carolina State lists it as an invasive species and does not recommend planting it in landscapes.
- Full Shade
- Grows to 10 ft tall and 8 ft wide
- Blooms in winter, spring
- Hardy in USDA zones 7a-9b
- Evergreen foliage
Plant description
A coarse, erect, multi stemmed broadleaf evergreen shrub of four to ten feet tall and three to eight feet wide, with rigid olive green odd pinnately compound leaves whose leaflets are edged with stiff spines. Lemon yellow racemes open in winter and early spring and are a valuable source of nectar and pollen for bees, followed by globose blue black berries in summer that birds take. It grows in partial to deep shade in well drained acidic soil, tolerates drought and salt, and resists deer. Note that North Carolina State lists it as an invasive species and does not recommend planting it in landscapes.
- Flowers
- Lemon yellow, weakly foetid flowers in short, crowded, upright terminal racemes three to six inches long in winter and spring, a valuable source of nectar and pollen.
- Foliage
- Rigid olive green leaves are alternate and odd pinnately compound with five to nine sessile leaflets, the terminal leaflet larger than the laterals, edged with stiff spines.
- Light
- Dappled/Filtered Light, Deep Shade
- Native range
- Central and southern China
