Barberry - Berberis vulgaris

• Add to Pick List
• Back to search results

Barberry - Berberis vulgaris
© Dr Chris Gibson/English Nature

Barberry is a shrub with erect branches and yellowish, spiny, ridged twigs with groups of three spines along their length. The leaves are oval and finely toothed. The drooping flowers are bright yellow and arranged up the stem, where the lowest flowers open first and then the others in sequence towards the tip of the stem. These flowers later develop into cylindrical clusters of deep red berries.

This plant can form part of a mixed hedge and provide a useful stock-proof barrier - or intruder-deterrent - in the garden. If it is kept clipped and fairly dense, it can offer nesting possibilities for blackbird, song thrush, dunnock, and greenfinch.

In the wild, this is a plant of hedgerows and rough, scrubby ground, but it has been eradicated from many field borders as it is the alternate host of the wheat rust fungus, Puccinia graminis.

Animals

Bees and wasps, Blackbird, Dunnock, Greenfinch, Song thrush

Foliage	Green
Flower	Yellow, May to June
Moisture	(Dry)
Sunlight	(Full sun)
Origin	Native