Kingdom: Plantae

Phylum: Magnoliophyta -- flowering plants

Class: Magnoliopsida -- dicots

Family: Berberidaceae -- barberry

Common Name: Oregon grape, creeping barberry, creeping Oregon grape

Species Code: MARE11, BERE

Origin: Native to grasslands and dry forests of interior western North America south to New Mexico and east to the western portion of the Dakotas.

Rare: no

Form: shrub, prostrate, seldom to 25cm tall, often rooting at nodes.

Duration: perennial

Longevity: 8-12 inches

Habitat Type: prairie, dry forest

Wetland Indicator Status: not listed

Leaves: alternate, evergreen, pinnately compound, sessile, 10-20 cm long, ovate, dull green above and paler beneath, toothed, rounded tip; turning reddish-brown in winter.

Mature height: 8-12 inches

Flowers: borne in a raceme, bright yellow, 6-8 mm long, tightly bunched.

Flower color: yellow

Bloom: May

Bloom starts on: early May

Bloom ends on: mid May

Fruit: berry, glaucous, dark blue

Characteristics:
Mahonia repens is synonymous. Species which lack spines on the stem and have pinnately compound leaves are assigned to the genus Mahonia by some taxonomists and included in Berberis by others.
Reproduces both sexually by seed and vegetatively by layering.
Leaves are not deciduous. They turn a reddish brown during the winter but remain on the plant.
54,000-71,000 seeds/lb (Hassell et al 1996).
54,000-71,000 seeds/lb or an average of 62,000 seeds/lb (Minore et al undated).
66,560 seeds/lb (USDA NRCS Plants Database 2009).
2n=28 (Hitchcock 1969, Flora of North American Editorial Committee 1993, Baldwin et al 2004).
Flowers are perfect.
Fruit is a berry.
Berries are edible. Roots were used medicinally and for a yellow dye. Plants form a good ground cover for erosion control uses.
The stamens lie flat against the petals until they receive a tactile stimulus, possibly from an insect. When stimulated, they close around the pistil. This suggests that the flowers are self pollinated.
Seed is distributed by animals which eat the fruit.
Rocky Mountain elk browse the plants year around, but it is most valuable in fall and winter (Kufeld 1973). Cattle occasionally graze the plants but they are considered poor forage. Berries are eaten by wildlife.

Sun requirement: full to partial sun

Soil moisture: mesic

Precipitation: 15-45 inches (USDA NRCS PLANTS Database 2009).

Fire: Following light to moderate fires B. repens regrows from rhizomes and seed recruitment to original levels in 5-10 years. Severe fires will kill the rhizomes (Ulev 2006)
Berberis repens is moderately resistant to fire because the roots and rhizomes are deep enough below mineral soil to afford them some protection (McLean 1969).

Sowing time: fall

Transplant time: spring

Stratification: complex, see "Propagation" section below

Seed harvest: medium difficulty

Seed first harvest: no information available

Seed cleaning: difficult

Planting duration: long

Seed shatter: low

Seed size: large

Seed harvest date: August

Seed comments: Fruits are eaten by animals.

Herbaria: Specimen data and digital resources from The Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria

Alternate Genus: Mahonia

Propagation:
4 protocols in the Native Plant Network
seeds, Glacier National Park, MT
Bridger MT Plant Materials Center
Lone Peak Nursery, Utah
vegetative, Glacier National Park, MT

Other Propagation Information:
Acid scarify, then 150 days cold moist stratification (McLean 1967).
30 days cold moist stratification at 1^oC, followed by 60 days warm moist stratification at 20^oC, then 196 days cold moist stratification at 1^oC. Also germinates well with 16 weeks cold moist stratification in gibberellic acid. Can be vegetatively propagated from suckers, cuttings, and by layering (Rose et al 1998).
Gibberellic acid increases germination. Seed germinates best at cool temperatures (McDonough 1969).
Germination is higher for seed which has passed thru the digestive tract of black bears (Auger et al 2002).
Reproduces both sexually by seed and vegetatively by stolons.

References:
Auger, Janene, Susan E. Meyer, and Hal L. Black. 2002. Are American Black Bears (Ursus americanus) Legitimate Seed Dispensers for Fleshy-fruited Shrubs? American Midland Naturalist 147(2):352-367.

Baldwin, B.G., S. Boyd, B.J. Ertter, D.J. Keil, R.W. Patterson, T.J. Rosatti, and D.H. Wilken (eds). 2004. Jepson Online Interchange for California Floristics. University and Jepson Herbaria, University of California, Berkeley, CA. Accessed 7/25/09 online at http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/interchange.html

Baskin, Carol C., Jerry M. Baskin, and Susan E. Meyer. 1993. Seed Dormancy in the Colorado Plateau Shrub Mahonia fremontii (Berberidaceae) and Its Ecological and Evolutionary Implications. The Southwestern Naturalist 38:91-99.

Flora of North America Editorial Committee, eds. 1993+. Flora of North America North of Mexico. 7+ vols. New York and Oxford. Oxford University Press. Online at http://www.fna.org/FNA/

Francis, John K. (editor). 2004. Wildland Shrubs of the United States and Its Territories: Thamnic Descriptions: Volume 1. Gen. Tech. Report IITF-GTR-26. USDA, Forest Service, International Institute of Tropical Forestry, San Juan, Puerto Rico, and USDA, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fort Collins, CO. 839 pp.

Hassell, Wendell, W. Rocky Beavers, Steve Ouellette, and Thomas Mitchell. 1996. Seeding Rate Statistics for Native and Introduced Species. US Dept of Interior and USDA, NRCS. Denver, CO.

Hitchcock, C. Leo, Arthur Cronquist, Marion Ownbey, and J.W. Thompson. 1969. Vascular Plants of the Pacific Northwest. University of Washington Press. Seattle, WA. 5 vol.

Kufeld, Roland. 1973. Foods Eaten by the Rocky Mountain Elk. Journal of Range Management 26:106-113.

McDonough, Walter T. 1969. Effective Treatments for the Induction of Germination in Mountain Rangeland Species. Northwest Science 43:18-22.

McLean, Alastair. 1967. Germination of Forest Range Species from British Columbia. Journal of Range Management. 20:321-322.

McLean, Alastair. 1969. Fire Resistance of Forest Species as Influenced by Root Systems. Journal of Range Management 22:120-122.

Minore, Don, and Paul O. Rudolf. undated. Berberis L. barberry. In: Bonner, Franklin T., and Rebecca G. Nisley (eds.). Woody Plant Seed Manual. USDA Forest Service. Available online at http://www.nsl.fs.fed.us/wpsm/

Rose, Robin, Caryn E.C. Chachulski, and Diane L. Haase. 1998. Propagation of Pacific Northwest Native Plants. Oregon State University Press, Corvallis, OR.

Ulev, Elena D. 2006. Berberis repens. In: Fire Effects Information System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available: http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/ [2008, February 10].

USDA NRCS. 2009. The PLANTS Database (http://plants.usda.gov, 13 July 2009). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.

Wyth, Lois. 2002. Mahonia repens. Sage Notes. 24(4):8-9.

Links:
Plant Profile from the USDA PLANTS Database
Species account from the Fire Effects Information System
Species description from Flora of North America
Species information from the University of Washington Herbarium