Commemorating Bernard M’Mahon (1775–1816) American horticulturist
Spineless shrubs, occasionally single-stemmed and tree-like. Leaves alternate, stipulate, pinnate, with the terminal leaflet generally the longest. Leaflets spined. Flowers bisexual, erect or drooping in long clusters in the leaf axils near the growing tip. Perianth segments 15, the outer 3 small and sepal-like, the inner ones yellow. Stamens 6, 'triggered' on contact. Ovary superior, with 1 chamber. Fruit mostly a blackish waxy blue berry.
Seed, semi-hardwood cuttings (leaf-bud cuttings in M. japonica), division.
Collection Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens, Adelaide.
About 70 species from N &C America but mostly in Asia from the Himalaya to Japan and Sumatra.
Ahrendt (1961), Brickell (1979).
Source: (1997). Berberidaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 2. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 1. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.
