The Berberidaceae are a

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

of 18 genera of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

s commonly called the barberry family. This family is in the

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood ...

Ranunculales Ranunculales is an order of flowering plants. Of necessity it contains the family Ranunculaceae, the buttercup family, because the name of the order is based on the name of a genus in that family. Ranunculales belongs to a paraphyletic group k ...

. The family contains about 700 known species, of which the majority are in the genus ''

Berberis ''Berberis'' (), commonly known as barberry, is a large genus of deciduous and evergreen shrubs from tall, found throughout temperate and subtropical regions of the world (apart from Australia). Species diversity is greatest in South America a ...

''. The species include

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, e.g., including only woody plants with secondary growth, only ...

shrub A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple ...

s and

perennial In horticulture, the term perennial ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the year") is used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. It has thus been defined as a plant that lives more than 2 years. The term is also ...

herbaceous Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials. Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous" The fourth edition of ...

plants.

Taxonomy

The

APG IV system The APG IV system of flowering plant classification is the fourth version of a modern, mostly molecular-based, system of plant taxonomy for flowering plants (angiosperms) being developed by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG). It was publish ...

of 2016 recognises the family and places it in the order

in the clade

eudicots The eudicots or eudicotyledons are flowering plants that have two seed leaves (cotyledons) upon germination. The term derives from ''dicotyledon'' (etymologically, ''eu'' = true; ''di'' = two; ''cotyledon'' = seed leaf). Historically, authors h ...

. In some older treatments of the family, Berberidaceae only included four genera (''Berberis, Epimedium, Mahonia, Vancouveria''), with the other genera treated in separate families, Leonticaceae (''Bongardia, Caulophyllum, Gymnospermium, Leontice''), Nandinaceae (''Nandina''), and Podophyllaceae (''Achlys, Diphylleia, Dysosma, Jeffersonia, Podophyllum, Ranzania, Sinopodophyllum''). ''Mahonia'' is very closely related to ''Berberis'', and included in it by many botanists. However, recent

DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix. The polymer carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of al ...

-based

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical dat ...

research has reinstated ''Mahonia'', though with a handful of species transferred into the newly described genera ''Alloberberis'' (formerly ''Mahonia'' section ''Horridae'') and ''Moranothamnus'' (formerly ''Mahonia claireae''). Species of ''Mahonia'' and ''Berberis'' can be hybridised, with the hybrids being classified in the genus ''× Mahoberberis''. ''Diphyllaea'' is closely related to or perhaps embedded within ''Podophyllum.'' Instead of the current trend to subdivide ''Podophyllum'' into three genera (''Podophyllum'', plus ''Dysosma'' and ''Sinopodophyllum''), inclusion of ''Diphyllaea'' in a larger ''Podophyllum'' is equally warranted. Genera are displayed in the following cladogram

Gallery

Berberidaceae_California_Barberry.jpg, '' Berberis pinnata'' (California barberry) Berberidaceae Mahonia Swaseyi.jpg, '' Berberis swaseyi'' Berberis darwinii from the Berberidaceae (8406231651).jpg, ''

Berberis darwinii ''Berberis darwinii'', Darwin's barberry, is a species of flowering plant in the Family (biology), family Berberidaceae, native to southern Chile and Argentina and naturalized elsewhere. Regional vernacular names include ''michay'', ''calafate'' ...

'' (''calafate'' or ''michay'') Berberis empetrifolia, fruit (8625238212).jpg, '' Berberis empetrifolia'', fruit

References

External links

Berberidaceae
in L. Watson and M.J. Dallwitz (1992 onwards)
''The families of flowering plants.''

Berberidaceae links

Chilean Berberidaceae, by Chileflora
{{Authority control Eudicot families Flora of Nepal