Flora of New Zealand Series

Glabrous evergreen shrub to c. 2 m high. Shoots pale yellowish, angled. Spines 3-partite, the main axis to 5 cm long. Lvs sessile or subsessile, 5-9 × 0.7-1.4 cm on flowering branches, narrowly lanceolate, rigidly coriaceous, shining above; margins spiny serrate and revolute; base attenuate to cuneate; apex spiny. Fls to 17 in fascicles, occasionally more. Bracts 2-3 mm long, ovate, mucronate. Pedicels c. 10 mm long at anthesis, becoming dark crimson. Perianth segments to 6 mm long, yellow, those of outermost whorl 1-2 mm long. Nectaries prominent. Stamens c. 3 mm long. Ovules 4. Style short. Stigma very large. Berry 5-7 mm diam., globose or subglobose, black and pruinose; fruiting style 0.5-1 mm long.

N.: known from one collection only, a very small wild population in scrub at Trentham, Hutt Valley.

W. China 1958

FL Sep-Nov.

B. soulieana is commonly cultivated. Several other evergreen barberries with blackish frs covered with glaucous bloom and belonging to the Asiatic sect. Wallichianae are cultivated in N.Z. Probably the commonest is B. gagnepainii Schneider var. lanceifolia Ahrendt which is distinguished from B. soulieana by its almost membranous undulate lvs, and oblong frs which appear darker because of the sparser covering of bloom. B. soulieana has been misidentified as B. julianae Schneider, a related Chinese sp. occasionally grown in N.Z. and distinguished by its wider lvs with more marginal spines.