Mahonia japonica

Mahonia japonica is a species of flowering plant in the family Berberidaceae, native to Taiwan.[3] 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 long puzzled botanists, but wild plants in Taiwan, known under the name Mahonia tikushiensis, appear most similar to the cultivated forms of M. japonica.[4]

Mahonia japonica
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Ranunculales
Family: Berberidaceae
Genus: Mahonia
Species:
M. japonica
Binomial name
Mahonia japonica
Synonyms[1][2][3]
  • Ilex japonica Thunb.
  • Aquifolium japonicum Raf
  • Berberis japonica (Thunb.) R.Br.
  • Berberis japonica var. gracillima (Fedde) Rehder
  • Berberis tikushiensis (Hayata) Laferr.
  • Mahonia japonica var. gracillima Fedde
  • Mahonia tikushiensis Hayata

Description

It is an evergreen shrub growing to 2 m (7 ft) tall by 3 m (10 ft) wide.[5] The foliage is pinnate, glossy dark green above, paler beneath, and sharply toothed. Each leaf usually has six to eight pairs of leaflets together with a single terminal leaflet. The plant produces new shoots regularly from the base, so it is clothed in foliage at all levels.

The small, scented, yellow flowers are borne from autumn through winter into spring. The inflorescences are 25 cm or more long, at first arching and then pendant. Blue or black fruits develop in spring and summer.[3][6][7][8][9]

Cultivation

The plant is much grown as an ornamental shrub, and for use in landscapes. It is of value for its bold foliage, flowers in flowering season, and as a groundcover landscape shrub. Its spiny foliage, like that of the closely related Berberis, invite use in security hedging.

Mahonia japonica has received the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.[10][11] The hybrid between it and Mahonia oiwakensis subsp. lomariifolia is also a popular garden plant. Known as Mahonia × media, several cultivars have been developed from it, including 'Charity', 'Winter Sun' and 'Lionel Fortescue'.[12] A hybrid with Mahonia duclouxiana (M. siamensis), called Mahonia × lindsayae 'Cantab', though less well known, is a useful garden plant[13] and also holds an Award of Garden Merit.[5]

Mahonia bealei, native to mainland China[14] and also widely cultivated, is usually treated as a separate species, but in the past has been listed as a cultivar of Mahonia japonica.[4] Its most obvious differences from M. japonica are in shorter, upright flowering racemes and wider leaflets.

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References
  1. Tropicos
  2. The Plant List
  3. Flora of China v 19 p 781, Mahonia japonica
  4. Bayton, Ross (2017). "The identity of Mahonia japonica". The Plantsman (New Series). 16 (4): 244–248.
  5. RHS A-Z encyclopedia of garden plants. United Kingdom: Dorling Kindersley. 2008. p. 1136. ISBN 1405332964.
  6. Thunberg, Carl Peter. 1784. Flora Japonica 77, Ilex japonica
  7. Brown, Robert. 1818. Observations systematical and geographical on the herbarium collected by Professor Christian Smith, in the vicinity of the Congo: during the expedition to explore that river, under the command of Captain Tuckey in the year 1816. London, App. 22, Berberis japonica
  8. Candolle, Augustin Pyramus de. 1821. Regni Vegetabilis Systema Naturale 2: 22.
  9. Hayata, Bunzô. 1915. Icones plantarum formosanarum nec non et contributiones ad floram formosanam 5: 5–6, Mahonia tikushiensis
  10. "RHS Plantfinder - Mahonia japonica". Retrieved 25 March 2018.
  11. "AGM Plants - Ornamental" (PDF). Royal Horticultural Society. July 2017. p. 62. Retrieved 25 March 2018.
  12. Brickell, C.D. (1979). "The hybrids between Mahonia japonica and M. lomariifolia". The Plantsman. 1: 12–20.
  13. Cullen, J. (2012). "Mahonia × lindsayae 'Cantab'". Curtis's Botanical Magazine. 29: 122–136.
  14. Flora of China v 19 p 778, Mahonia bealei
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