Pretty Prickly Sourpuss

Neither Holly Nor Grape.

I’m enjoying my last day in DC with a brisk walk through the lovely old neighborhood of Tenleytown. Colonial homes and row houses snuggle up close to one another, tiny yards lavishly abloom with azaleas, rhododendron, crimson phlox and masses of fragrant iris.

In the midst of all this riotous color and perfume, my eye is drawn to this prickly holly lookalike shrub bearing thick clusters of dusty blue, mouth-puckering berries. Say “hello” to berberis aquifolium, commonly called Oregon grape or mahonia. In neither the grape nor the holly family, mahonia belongs to the berberidaceae clan and is prized for its early flowers and attractive variegated foliage.

"Oregon grape, what makes you so sour today— or every day, for that matter? Your blue berries, ripe to bursting, look delicious but they’re not. Are you jealous of your upland cousin, thriving in subalpine meadows, you stuck down here in the woods? Listen: your little leaves in bending ladders, dark green and shining like the holly, lift me into holiday spirits. I’m serious. With you it is Christmas in the gloom. If you could just be happy about it, I might forgive you for your flavor."

Paul Willis

This lovely upright shrub grows up to six feet tall and, early in the spring, offers dense masses of fragrant yellow flowers that attract a wide variety of nectar-loving insects and birds. The flowers have already come and gone, but mahonia now bears bunches of grapelike berries which will remain on the plant well into winter and, even though their taste is astringent, they are appreciated by birds such as towhees, robins and waxwings.