''Mahonia oiwakensis'' is a species of

plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclud ...

in the barberry family, Berberidaceae. It is native to

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

(

Guizhou Guizhou (; formerly Kweichow) is a landlocked province in the southwest region of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Guiyang, in the center of the province. Guizhou borders the autonomous region of Guangxi to t ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

Sichuan Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...

Xizang The Tibet Autonomous Region or Xizang Autonomous Region, often shortened to Tibet or Xizang, is a province-level autonomous region of the People's Republic of China in Southwest China. It was overlayed on the traditional Tibetan regions of Ü ...

(

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...

) and

Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked Provinces of China, province in Southwest China, the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is ...

) and

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

, where it occurs at elevations of 600 to 3800 m.Flora of China v 19 p 774
It has recently been found

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Nomenclature

This

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

has long been known by the name ''Mahonia lomariifolia'', published by Takeda in 1917. Under that name, it was considered to occur only in mainland China, while on

, a second species was found, known as ''M. oiwakensis''. Modern taxonomic sources unite the two as a single species, but as the latter name was published a year earlier by Hayata, it has priority and is thus the accepted name. In recognition of the morphological differences between the Taiwanese and mainland Chinese plants, Shaw recognized the two as

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

of ''Mahonia oiwakensis:'' ''M. oiwakensis'' subsp. ''oiwakensis'' in Taiwan and ''M. oiwakensis'' subsp. ''lomariifolia'' in mainland China. In addition, a plant collected in Yunnan with especially narrow leaflets was described as a new variety: ''Mahonia oiwakensis'' subsp. ''lomariifolia'' var. ''tenuifoliola''.

Description

''Mahonia oiwakensis'' is a shrub or tree up to 7 m tall. Leaves are up to 45 cm long, compound with 12-20 pairs of leaflets plus a larger terminal one, dark green above, yellow-green below. The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

is a fascicled

raceme A raceme ( or ) or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are produced as the s ...

up to 25 cm long. The berries are egg-shaped, dark blue, sometimes almost black, up to 8 mm long.

Hybrids

''Mahonia oiwakensis'' subsp. ''lomariifolia'' is one parent of the important garden

hybrid Hybrid may refer to: Science * Hybrid (biology), an offspring resulting from cross-breeding ** Hybrid grape, grape varieties produced by cross-breeding two ''Vitis'' species ** Hybridity, the property of a hybrid plant which is a union of two dif ...

''Mahonia'' x ''media'', which includes popular

cultivar A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture, ...

s such as 'Charity', 'Winter Sun' and 'Lionel Fortescue' (the other parent is ''

Mahonia japonica ''Mahonia japonica'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Berberidaceae, native to Taiwan. Despite the name, it is not native to Japan, though it has been known in cultivation there for centuries. The wild origins of this species have l ...

''). It is also a parent of the cultivar 'Arthur Menzies', though with ''

Mahonia bealei ''Berberis bealei'', also known as leatherleaf mahonia, Beale's barberry, or Oregon grape, is a species of evergreen shrub native to mainland China. The species has been regarded as the same species as '' Berberis japonica'', native to Taiwan, ...

'' as the other parent. In the wild in Taiwan, ''M. oiwakensis'' subsp. ''oiwakensis'' appears to hybridize with wild ''Mahonia japonica''. ''Mahonia oiwakensis'' subsp. ''lomariifolia'' has gained the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr (Nort ...

’s

Award of Garden Merit The Award of Garden Merit (AGM) is a long-established annual award for plants by the British Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). It is based on assessment of the plants' performance under UK growing conditions. History The Award of Garden Merit ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5458401 Flora of China oiwakensis Vulnerable plants Plants described in 1916 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot