Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles
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'Berberis diaphana' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
A deciduous shrub 2 to 3 ft high with glabrous stems, green when young, yellowish when mature, armed with stout three-pronged spines 1⁄2 to 1 in. long. Leaves 2⁄3 to 1 in. long, obovate to almost oblong, spiny-toothed, grey-green above with a prominent reticulate venation, grey beneath. Flowers 1⁄2 in. across, one to five in a cluster or condensed raceme. Berries bright red, about 1⁄2 in. long, ovoid, with a short style and containing six to ten seeds. Bot. Mag., t. 8224.
Native of N.W. China. It is a decorative species, colouring well in the autumn. It was introduced to Kew at the end of the last century from the St Petersburg Botanic Garden, to which seed had been sent from Kansu by the Russian explorer Przewalski.