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Scientific Name
Family
Common Names
Origin
Naturalised Distribution
Notes
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Click on images to enlarge

habit (Photo: Sheldon Navie)

habit in fruit (Photo: Sheldon Navie)

older stem with spines (Photo: Sheldon Navie)

leaves and flower clusters (Photo: Sheldon Navie)

young leaves (Photo: Sheldon Navie)

close-up of flowers (Photo: Sheldon Navie)

older leaves and mature fruit (Photo: Sheldon Navie)

close-up of seeds (Photo: Steve Hurst at USDA PLANTS Database)

Berberis vulgaris

Scientific Name

Berberis vulgaris L.

Family

Berberidaceae

Common Names

barberry, barberry bush, common barberry, European barberry, jaundice berry

Origin

Native to Europe (i.e. Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Belarus, western Russia, Ukraine, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Romania, Yugoslavia, France and Spain) and western Asia (i.e. Turkey).

Naturalised Distribution

This species currently has a limited naturalised distribution in Australia. It is sparingly naturalised on the southern tablelands of New South Wales and is possibly also naturalised in Tasmania.

Naturalised overseas in the USA, Canada and New Zealand.

Notes

Common barberry (Berberis vulgaris) is regarded as an environmental weed in the southern highlands of New South Wales and as a "sleeper weed" in other parts of south-eastern Australia. It is currently listed as a priority environmental weed in one Natural Resource Management Region. This species is also an alternate host for a potentially damaging stem rust disease of wheat crops.