Berberis lycium
Credits
Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles
Recommended citation
'Berberis lycium' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Genus
Other taxa in genus
- Berberis actinacantha
- Berberis aetnensis
- Berberis aggregata
- Berberis angulosa
- Berberis aristata
- Berberis asiatica
- Berberis atrocarpa
- Berberis beaniana
- Berberis bergmanniae
- Berberis buxifolia
- Berberis calliantha
- Berberis canadensis
- Berberis candidula
- Berberis × carminea
- Berberis chillanensis
- Berberis chrysosphaera
- Berberis comberi
- Berberis concinna
- Berberis coxii
- Berberis cretica
- Berberis darwinii
- Berberis dasystachya
- Berberis diaphana
- Berberis dictyoneura
- Berberis dictyophylla
- Berberis empetrifolia
- Berberis fendleri
- Berberis francisci-ferdinandii
- Berberis gagnepainii
- Berberis glaucocarpa
- Berberis gyalaica
- Berberis hakeoides
- Berberis heterophylla
- Berberis heteropoda
- Berberis hispanica
- Berberis hookeri
- Berberis hypokerina
- Berberis ilicifolia
- Berberis incrassata
- Berberis insignis
- Berberis jamesiana
- Berberis johannis
- Berberis julianae
- Berberis kawakamii
- Berberis koreana
- Berberis lecomtei
- Berberis lepidifolia
- Berberis linearifolia
- Berberis lycioides
- Berberis manipurana
- Berberis mitifolia
- Berberis montana
- Berberis morrisonensis
- Berberis mucrifolia
- Berberis orthobotrys
- Berberis poiretii
- Berberis prattii
- Berberis pruinosa
- Berberis replicata
- Berberis × rubrostilla
- Berberis sanguinea
- Berberis sargentiana
- Berberis sibirica
- Berberis sieboldii
- Berberis silva-taroucana
- Berberis soulieana
- Berberis × stenophylla
- Berberis sublevis
- Berberis temolaica
- Berberis thunbergii
- Berberis tischleri
- Berberis triacanthophora
- Berberis tsarongensis
- Berberis umbellata
- Berberis valdiviana
- Berberis veitchii
- Berberis vernae
- Berberis verruculosa
- Berberis virescens
- Berberis vulgaris
- Berberis wardii
- Berberis wilsoniae
- Berberis yunnanensis
- Berberis zabeliana
A deciduous or semi-evergreen shrub, of spreading habit, 6 or 8 ft high; young shoots furnished with fine down. Leaves narrowly obovate, light green above, glaucous beneath, varying in length in each tuft from 3⁄4 to 2 in. with a few teeth towards the apex, or with none, but always spine-tipped. Spines three-parted, 1⁄2 to 3⁄4 in. long. Racemes 2 to 3 in. in length, carrying from twelve to thirty flowers, each 1⁄3 in. across, bright yellow. Berries 2⁄5 in. long, oblong, covered with a fine blue-purple bloom. Bot. Mag., t. 7075.
Native of the Himalaya, and quite hardy at Kew, where it flowers in May and June. It was in cultivation there in 1853, and had probably been introduced by Sir Joseph Hooker a few years previously. This plant yields the drug known as ‘Lycium’, used for ages in inflammatory affections of the eyes. The beautiful purplish berries are eaten in N. India. It is a species distinct in the hard, pale green leaves, conspicuously net-veined above, glaucous beneath, and almost entire.