Mahonia gracilipes (Oliver) Fedde

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Mahonia gracilipes' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/mahonia/mahonia-gracilipes/). Accessed 2024-04-23.

Genus

Mahonia

Synonyms

Berberis gracilipes Oliver

Other taxa in genus

Glossary

apex: (pl. apices) Tip. apical At the apex.
bloom: Bluish or greyish waxy substance on leaves or fruits.
cuneate: Wedge-shaped.
lax: Loose or open.
petaloid: Petal-like. May refer to sepals or stamens modified into a petal-like form.
rachis: Central axis of an inflorescence cone or pinnate leaf.
reticulate: Arranged in a net-like manner.
whorl: Arrangement of three or more organs (leaves flowers) around a central axis. whorled Arranged in a whorl.

References

There are no active references in this article.

Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Mahonia gracilipes' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/mahonia/mahonia-gracilipes/). Accessed 2024-04-23.

Like many species Mahonia gracilipes is a striking foliage plant, but it is set apart by the chalk-white undersides of the leaves, visible on the left of this image of a plant raised from L 553. Savill Garden, Windsor Great Park, UK. 20 October 2016. Image John Anderson.

A small, suckering shrub. Leaves up to 2 ft long, with a few pairs of widely spaced leaflets, the lowermost pair inserted well above the base of the rachis. The leaflets are all more or less equal in size, mostly 31⁄2 to 51⁄2 in. long, 1 to 2 in. wide, cuneate at the base, with a few short teeth towards the apex, dull sea-green and reticulate above, covered beneath with a chalky bloom that wears away with age; racemes about three in each cluster, lax, attaining a length of almost 2 ft. Flowers small, widely spaced, on long, slender pedicels.

This species was described in 1887 from a specimen collected by Faber on Mount Omei in western Szechwan, where it was later found by Wilson but apparently not introduced by him and unknown to cultivation until two plants were brought from the mountain in 1980, one collected by Roy Lancaster and the other by the Dutch botanist H. van de Laar. The former is at the Savill Garden, Windsor Great Park, and the other at the Boskoop Experimental Station. Both, grown under glass, have produced flowers in which the inner, petaloid whorl is white and the sepaloid whorl brownish purple, an unusual and perhaps unique feature in this genus. Whether it is characteristic of the species as a whole it is impossible to say, botanical accounts being based only on a few dried specimens.

Mahonia gracilipes raised from Roy Lancaster's introduction L 553 at the Savill Garden, Windsor Great Park, UK. 2 August 2022. Image John Anderson.

Detail of Mahonia gracilipes. Exbury, Hampshire, UK. 13 August 2009. Image John Anderson.

The striking leaf undersides of Mahonia gracilipes L 553. Savill Garden, Windsor Great Park, UK. 15 November 2018. Image John Anderson.

Mahonia gracilipes is a striking foliage plant, especially when new growths appears in spring. Manoir de la Fieffe (from Kolster nursery), Normandy, France. 24 April 2023. Image Guillaume Mamdy.

The emerging leaves of Mahonia gracilipes add to its considerable rollcall of ornamental qualities. Manoir de la Fieffe (from Kolster nursery), Normandy, France. 24 April 2023. Image Guillaume Mamdy.

Close up on the base of the new growth of Mahonia gracilipes in spring. Manoir de la Fieffe (from Kolster nursery), Normandy, France. 24 April 2023. Image Guillaume Mamdy.

Detail of a flowering raceme of Mahonia gracilipes, which are usually about 3 per cluster and lax. Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (Lancaster 553). 21 September 2016. Image Guillaume Mamdy.

Close up on the small flowers of Mahonia gracilipes, in which the inner petaloid whorl is white and the sepaloid whorl brownish purple, an unusual and perhaps unique feature in this genus . Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (Lancaster 553). 21 September 2016. Image Guillaume Mamdy.

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