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Key to Berberidaceae

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Show caption*© Richard & Teresa Ware
1 Leaves 2-3-ternately compound; [subfamily Nandinoideae].
  2 Plant a shrub, with multiple leaves; flowers white
  2 Plant an herb, with 2 leaves; flowers green, greenish yellow, or maroon
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Show caption*© Keith Bradley
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Show caption*© Nate Hartley, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Nate Hartley
1 Leaves simple (sometimes shallowly to deeply lobed), 2-foliolate, 3-foliolate, or 1-pinnately compound.
    3 Plant a shrub; leaves simple, palmately 3-foliolate, or 1-pinnately compound; flowers yellow; [subfamily Berberidoideae]
      4 Leaves simple, fascicled on short spur shoots; stems spiny; leaves deciduous or evergreen
      4 Leaves 1-pinnately compound or palmately 3-foliolate, either fascicled on short spur shoots (Alloberberis) or not fascicled (Mahonia); stems not spiny; leaves evergreen.
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Show caption*© Sonnia Hill
        5 Leaves palmately 3-foliolate; stems dimorphic (leaves fascicled on short shoots); berries red
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Show caption*© Keith Bradley
        5 Leaves 1-pinnately compound; stems monomorphic (leaves borne on primary shoots); berries blue or black
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Show caption*© Scott Ward
    3 Plant an herb; leaves peltate, 2-parted or radially lobed; flowers white; [subfamily Podophylloideae].
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Show caption*© Scott Ward
          6 Plant acaulescent; flower solitary and scapose; leaf segments 2; fruit a capsule
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Show caption*© Erik Danielson
          6 Plant caulescent; flower solitary, or cymose to umbellate, borne on a stem with leaves; leaf segments several; fruit a berry.
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Show caption*© Bruce A. Sorrie
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Show caption*© Richard & Teresa Ware
             7 Flowers cymose or umbellate; stamens 6; berry globose, 8-12 mm long, 2-4 seeded; larger leaves with only 2 clefts that extend > halfway to the peltate center of the leaf (thus the leaf divided into 2 halves, the other sinuses shallow)
image of plant
Show caption*© Scott Ward
image of plant
Show caption*© Erik Danielson
             7 Flower solitary; stamens 12-18; berry ovoid, 25-70 mm long, many-seeded; larger leaves with 5 or more clefts that extend > halfway to the peltate center of the leaf (thus the leaf fairly evenly divided into multiple lobes)