Mahonia japonica

Mahonia japonica
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Magnoliophyta
(unranked):	Eudicots
Order:	Ranunculales
Family:	Berberidaceae
Genus:	Mahonia
Species:	M. japonica
Binomial name
Mahonia japonica Thunb.

Mahonia japonica is a medium sized shrub native to northeastern China.

It has small scented yellow flowers borne in winter. The flowers are the inflorescences are 25cm or more long. They are first arching and then pendant. Dark or black fruits develop in spring and summer.

The foliage is pinnate, glossy dark green above, paler beneath. Each leaf usually has 6–8 pairs of leaflets together with a single terminal leaflet. The plant will produce new shoots regularly from the base, so that it is clothed in foliage at all levels.

It is typically up to 2 metres high and wide when mature. The plant is much grown as an ornamental shrub, and for use in landscapes. It is of value for its bold foliage, flowers and flowering season, and as a ground cover landscape shrub. It is a parent of some widely used garden hybrids, such as Mahonia media.

Despite the name, it is not native to Japan though it has been known in cultivation there for centuries.

Mahonia japonica "Bealei"

Mahonia bealei is sometimes treated as a separate species, and sometimes as a cultivar of this species, under the above name. Its most obvious differences from the type are in shorter racemes and wider leaflets.

References

• Hillier; The Hillier Manual of Trees & Shrubs.
• C. D. Brickell; The hybrids between Mahonia japonica and M. lomariifolia. In The Plantsman, volume 1, 1979.