*Mahonia Nuttall. Subfamily: Berberidoideae. Mahonia, Oregon-grape.

Key to Mahonia

A genus of about 100 species, shrubs, of e. Asia and w. North America south to Central America. It became fashionable in the 1990s to 2010s to merge Mahonia into Berberis, because of a group of species then placed in Mahonia that rendered it paraphyletic. Yu & Chung (2017) analyzed the phylogeny of the Berberidoideae and proposed a 4-genus classification (Berberis, Mahonia, Alloberberis, and Moranothamnus [not in our region]), which we here follow. "Because of morphological and ecological distinctness of these four clades and their deep stem divergences equivalent to other genera of Berberidaceae, we propose a new classification of Berberis s.l. by applying a strict definition of Berberis (≡ Berberis s.str.), reinstating Mahonia (≡ core Mahonia), and proposing the two new genera Alloberberis nom. & stat. nov. (≡ Mahonia sect. Horridae) and Moranothamnus gen. nov. (≡ B. claireae). This revised classification is consistent with the traditional perception of Berberis and results in a monophyletic Mahonia, maintaining the stable usage of these two household names in both academic and non-academic communities."

Ref: Chen et al. (2020b); Kim, Kim, & Landrum (2004); Loconte In Kubitzki, Rohwer, & Bittrich (1993); Whittemore (1997d) In Flora of North America Editorial Committee (1997); Yu & Chung (2017). Show full citations.

Show in key(s)

Show parent family

Show species in Mahonia