Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Ranunculales
Family: Berberidaceae
Genus: Mahonia
Species: M. lomariifolia
Binomial name: Mahonia lomariifolia
Common name: Chinese holly grape, Burmese mahonia, Mountain grape, Chinese hollygrape, Holly grape
Mahonia lomariifolia is a tall narrow shrub or small tree, up to 9 meters high. It is native to the region between Yunnan, Sichuan, northern Burma and east to Taiwan. It's often referred to as the Chinese holly grape (due to its holly-like appearance and grape-like fruit).
The foliage is borne in tufts at the top of the stems. The large pinnate leaves have more leaflets than most species of Mahonia, usually up to 14-20 pairs of leaflets, with an additional terminal leaflet. Its leaves are fiercely spiky.
Fragrant yellow flowers are borne in racemose upright inflorescences at the tips of the branches, up to 25cm long during May to June in the southern hemisphere. Between 7 and 20 racemes occur in each cluster. The blue berries that cover the plant in spring can be made into jam.
More information on Mahonia as a weed in New Zealand,
https://api.ecan.govt.nz/TrimPublicAPI/documents/download/1301294
New growth.
The flowers upright inflorescences
The blue fruit in spring. They can be made into jam.
Thanks to Wikipedia for text and Information: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
