Berberis heterophylla

An evergreen shrub reaching 1.5 m tall. Hardy to UK zone 8. Maintains foliage year-round. Hermaphrodite and self-fertile, pollinated by insects. Tolerates light sandy, medium loamy, and heavy clay soils, including nutritionally poor soils. Grows in mildly acid, neutral, or basic pH; adapts to semi-shade or full sun; prefers dry or moist conditions.

Description

An evergreen shrub reaching 1.5 m tall. Hardy to UK zone 8. Maintains foliage year-round. Hermaphrodite and self-fertile, pollinated by insects. Tolerates light sandy, medium loamy, and heavy clay soils, including nutritionally poor soils. Grows in mildly acid, neutral, or basic pH; adapts to semi-shade or full sun; prefers dry or moist conditions.

Edible Uses

Edible Parts: Fruit Edible Uses: Fruit - raw or cooked. The fruits are about 6mm long.

Traditional Uses

The fruit are eaten raw. They are also cooked to make jelly or juice with water and sugar.

This uses section is brief — help expand it

Medicinal Uses

Antibacterial Cancer Dysentery Berberine, universally present in rhizomes of Berberis species, has marked antibacterial effects. Since it is not appreciably absorbed by the body, it is used orally in the treatment of various enteric infections, especially bacterial dysentery. It should not be used with Glycyrrhiza species (Liquorice) because this nullifies the effects of the berberine. Berberine has also shown antitumour activity.

Known Hazards

Do not use with Glycyrrhiza species (Liquorice) as this negates the berberine's therapeutic effects.

Distribution

It is a temperate plant. It grows on the Patagonian steppe in Argentina.

Where It Grows

Argentina*, Chile, South America,

Cultivation

Prefers a warm moist loamy soil and light shade but it is by no means fastidious, succeeding in thin, dry and shallow soils. Grows well in heavy clay soils. Plants are possibly hardy to about -15°c. Plants can be pruned back quite severely, they resprout well from the base. Hybridizes freely with other members of this genus. Plants produce suckers.

Propagation

Seed - best sown as soon as it is ripe in a cold frame, when it should germinate in late winter or early spring. Seed from over-ripe fruit will take longer to germinate, whilst stored seed may require cold stratification and should be sown in a cold frame as early in the year as possible. The seedlings are subject to damping off, so should be kept well ventilated. When the seedlings are large enough to handle, prick them out into individual pots and grow them on in a cold frame. If growth is sufficient, it can be possible to plant them out into their permanent positions in the autumn, but generally it is best to leave them in the cold frame for the winter and plant them out in late spring or early summer of the following year. Cuttings of half-ripe wood, July/August in a frame. Cuttings of mature wood of the current season's growth, preferably with a heel, October/November in a frame. Suckers, removed in late autumn/early winter and planted out in situ or potted up and planted out in late spring.

Other Uses

Dye A yellow dye is obtained from the root. Special Uses

Notes

There are about 450-500 Berberis species.

Also Known As

Michay

References (8)

• Altschul, S.V.R., 1973, Drugs and Foods from Little-known Plants. Notes in Harvard University Herbaria. Harvard Univ. Press. Massachusetts. no. 983
• Encycl. 8:622. 1808
• Ladio, A. H. & Lozada, M., 2000, Edible Plant Use in a Mapuche Community of North-western Patagonia, Human Ecology. Vol. 28, No. 1. pp. 53-71
• Ladio, A. H., 2001, The Maintenance of Wild Edible Plant Gatherings in a Mapuche Community of Patagonia. Economic Botany, Vol. 55, No. 2, pp. 243-254
• Ladio, A. H. and Lozada, M., 2003, Comparison of wild edible plant diversity and foraging strategies in two aboriginal communities of northwestern Patagonia. Biodiversity and Conservation 12: 937–951

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