Berberis actinacantha seed

LATIN NAME: Berberis actinacantha

COMMON NAME: Chile Barberry

The Chile barberry is a handsome, dense, many-branched, spiny, evergreen shrub of the dry hills, and its fine, small, leathery, glossy leaves and its clusters of the small, bright-yellow or orange flowers, followed by the small, round, glossy, red-orange berries, have made it a treasured and striking plant of the dry garden. It grows as a dense, many-branched, spiny, evergreen shrub, reaching up to two metres or so, with the many stiff, spiny branches bearing the small, clustered, leathery, glossy leaves and, through the spring, the small, bright-yellow or orange, six-petalled flowers in the small clusters, followed by the small, round, glossy, red-orange, tangy berries of the few small seeds. It is a species of the flowering shrub in the barberry family, and it is native to the dry hills of the central Chile, while it is grown as a treasured ornamental shrub, and it is known as the Chile barberry.

In the barberry family it is the South American member of a worldwide clan, trading the soft green of the hedgerow for the hard, glossy, spiny look of the dry hills.

Scientific Research & Plant Biotechnology

The Chile barberry appears in the horticultural papers of the dry garden as one of the reliable spines-and-berries shrubs, and the researchers who study the water-saving plants of the dry regions have given it a regular place in their work. The chemistry of the barberry family is a long chapter on its own, and the roots and the parts of the plant have been examined for the compounds behind the old traditional uses of the many lands. The ecologists have also mapped its place in the dry hills of the central Chile, where it holds the slope with the same dense, spiny growth that makes it a fine hedge in the garden. It is a shrub that earns its place in the dry-land collections, and the growers of the spiny, berry-bearing shrubs keep it on their lists.

Ecological & Economic Value & Wide Applications

In the dry rock garden, the Chile barberry is the plant that always looks settled. The bright-yellow or orange flowers feed the bees, the red-orange berries feed the birds, and the dense, spiny, evergreen growth makes an impenetrable hedge and a shelter for the nesting birds. The tangy berries are a small harvest of the dry garden, and the glossy, spiny form carries the garden through the winter without a fuss. It grows well in the sandy, well-drained, sunny ground and stands the dry spells. Spiny, glossy and generous.

The seeds come out of the berries with a firm little coat — sow them thinly just under the surface of a pot of sandy, free-draining soil, stand the pot in the open air through the cold months so they feel the winter, then keep it gently watered in a sunny spot, and the little green spines will be off on their own.