Berberis amplectens is a rare species of shrubs endemic to the Peninsular Ranges of southern California, east of San Diego.
Description It is an evergreen shrub up to 1.2 m (4 feet tall), with compound leaves and dark blue berries. It can be distinguished from other species in the genus by having numerous teeth along the leaf margins, as many as 15 per leaflet.Flora of North America vol 3.Wheeler, Louis Cutter. Rhodora 39(465): 376. 1937.Eastwood, Alice. Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences, Series 4, 20(5): 145. 1931.
The compound leaves place this species in the group sometimes segregated as the genus Mahonia.Loconte, H., & J. R. Estes. 1989. Phylogenetic systematics of Berberidaceae and Ranunculales (Magnoliidae). Systematic Botany 14:565-579.Marroquín, Jorge S., & Joseph E. Laferrière. 1997. Transfer of specific and infraspecific taxa from Mahonia to Berberis. Journal of the Arizona-Nevada Academy of Science 30(1):53-55.Laferrière, Joseph E. 1997. Transfer of specific and infraspecific taxa from Mahonia to Berberis. Bot. Zhurn. 82(9):96-99.
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