Dwarf Oregon-grape
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| Mahonia nervosa (Pursh) Nutt. |
Dwarf Oregon-grape (Mahonia nervosa, syn. Berberis nervosa), also called Cascade Oregon-grape, is a flowering plant native to the northwest coast of North America from southern British Columbia south to central California, with an isolated population inland in northern Idaho.
It is an evergreen shrub with short vertical stems, mostly under 30 cm, while the leaves reach higher, rarely up to 2 m tall. The leaves are compound, with 9-19 leaflets; each leaflet is strongly toothed, reminiscent of holly, and somewhat shiny, but less so than Tall Oregon-grape. The leaflets do not have a single central vein as in that species, but several veins arranged fan-like, branched from the leaflet base, hence the epithet nervosa. The flowers and fruit are like those of other Oregon-grapes; like them they are edible but just as sour.
It is able to grow under mature stands of Douglas-fir or Western Redcedar making use of intermittent pools of sunlight that reach the ground.
