OREGON GRAPE SERIES

Western medicinal uses for berberine, a compound derived from Berberis, include blood sugar stabilization, and studies show that it kills amoebae and can be used to treat giardia infections.īoiling the roots and inner bark of Oregon grape produces a yellow dye used on wool. Berberis species have long been used in Traditional Chinese Medicine to treat a variety of problems, including tuberculosis, dysentery, eczema, and wounds. Native American tribes of the Pacific Northwest have used preparations from Oregon grape roots to treat stomach problems, hemorrhages, arthritis, and tuberculosis. Various Oregon grape species are medicinally important. Tall Oregon grape spreads by its belowground root system (rhizomes), though it can also regenerate by seed. Small animals find cover in its densely clustered leaves. Painted lady butterflies, mason bees, and other invertebrates drink its flower nectar. Its berries nourish grouse, pheasants, robins, sparrows, and other fruit eaters (frugivores), including foxes and raccoons. Tall Oregon grape feeds and shelters wildlife.

It is drought tolerant and can be found in relatively sunny areas as well.

Tall Oregon grape is shade tolerant and typically found in shrublands, rocky woods and coniferous forests in the Pacific Northwest and northern California. The berries are edible and seedy, though sour.ĭig9084/©Gerald Carr/OregonFlora Habitat and Distribution The flowers ripen into round, dusty blue-black berries, resembling grapes, by early fall. Tall Oregon grape bears a cluster of bright yellow flowers in the spring, which are lightly scented. In the fall, the leaves can take on red and burgundy hues, adding to the plant’s overall ornamental color palette through the course of a season. New leaves emerge with a bronze color before they turn bright green. The oval- to oblong-shaped leaflets are shiny on top, with wavy spine-tipped edges. The entire Oregon grape leaf can be up to 25 cm long (10 in). Sword ferns have pinnate leaves, as well as trees like the Oregon ash, walnut, and black locust, for example.

Botanists call this configuration pinnate, from the Latin word pinnatus, meaning feathered.

OREGON GRAPE SERIES

Each compound “leaf” is actually a series of leaflets that grow in pairs on opposite sides of the leafstalk, except for the leading (terminal) leaf. Tall Oregon grape typically grows 1–2 m (3–6 ft) tall and up to 1.5 m (5 ft) wide. In California and the Pacific Northwest, one of the most common species-and Oregon’s state flower-is Berberis aquifolium (also called tall Oregon grape, or hollyleaved barberry). Unrelated to true grapes in the family Vitaceae, Oregon grape is an evergreen shrub, typically growing in the forest understory. The Berberis genus also goes by Mahonia, depending on taxonomy. Several members of the barberry family, Berberidaceae, actually go by the common name of Oregon grape, with many variations, such as Oregon hollygrape, tall Oregon grape, hollyleaved barberry, and creeping barberry. Oregon grape, with its holly-like leaves, splashes a little year-round holiday cheer in forests and woods of the West. DIG7412/©Bruce Newhouse/OregonFlora General Description