Species
+

Berberis darwinii Hook.

Chakaywa, Darwin's Barberry, Darwin's Barberry, Darwin's Berberis

Climate known 54 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Berberis darwinii, Darwin's barberry, is a species of flowering plant in the family Berberidaceae. It is native to southern Chile and Argentina and naturalized elsewhere. Regional vernacular names include michay, calafate, and quelung. Growing to 3–4 m (9.8–13.1 ft) tall, it is an evergreen thorny shrub.

Text from Wikipedia, “Berberis darwinii”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Berberis

Berberis, commonly known as barberry, is a large genus of deciduous and evergreen shrubs from 1–5 m tall, found throughout temperate and subtropical regions of the world. Species diversity is greatest in South America and Asia, but native species also appear in Europe, Africa, and North America.

Text from Wikipedia, “Berberis”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Berberidaceae
Described by
Hook.
Native to
Argentina South, Chile Central, Chile South
Wild records
264 in range· 128 open

At a glance

Warmest month
19°C
Feb, mean day; nights 10 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
2262mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 376 mm (CHELSA)
Light
8–44DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a winter growing season, October to March in the northern hemisphere (April to September at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 2262 mm a year, wettest June at 376 mm, driest February at 74 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 8 to 44 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -2.1 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Berberis costulata Gand.; Berberis darwinii var. darwinii; Berberis darwinii var. magellanica Ahrendt; Berberis darwinii var. pendula G.Nicholson; Berberis knightii (Lindl.) K.Koch and 3 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a winter growing season, October to March in the northern hemisphere (April to September at the habitat, southern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the year's rain (1616 mm of 2262 mm) falls in April to September, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 6.0 °C against a yearly mean of 9.1 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: October to March.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 2262 mm a year, wettest June at 376 mm, driest February at 74 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

2262 mm a year at the habitat, 1616 mm of it April to September. Wettest month June at 376 mm, driest February at 74 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1447 mm to 3843 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 8 to 44 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 8 to 44 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 7, the highest 90th-percentile month 51).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -2.1 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -2.1 °C, the absolute minimum -4.6 °C, about 28 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 18.6 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 1.1 °C in July (across the envelope cells -2.7 °C to 6.4 °C), warmest day 18.9 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -2.1 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 60 to 68% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 7 °C in Jul to 19 °C in Feb; mean night from 1 °C in Jul to 10 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 2262 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 202 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -4.6 °C and the 99th-percentile day 18.6 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°-5°10°15°20°25°frost18.6° 99th-percentile day (undated)-4.6° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0200400600800mm rainDLI 8–44RH 60–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 202 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C19 / 15–2219 / 16–2217 / 14–1913 / 10–1610 / 6–138 / 3–117 / 3–108 / 4–1110 / 6–1312 / 9–1514 / 11–1717 / 14–20
Night °C10 / 7–1210 / 7–129 / 6–116 / 3–104 / 1–92 / -2–71 / -3–61 / -2–72 / -1–74 / 0–86 / 3–108 / 5–11
Rain mm93 / 46–18274 / 36–144117 / 64–210182 / 116–324322 / 194–544376 / 222–626305 / 179–493262 / 164–431169 / 108–292150 / 90–271110 / 64–208102 / 53–201
DLI44 / 38–5139 / 34–4528 / 24–3318 / 15–2211 / 9–148 / 7–1010 / 8–1315 / 13–1824 / 21–2832 / 29–3840 / 35–4644 / 38–50
RH %61 / 56–6460 / 56–6462 / 59–6665 / 62–6767 / 64–6968 / 65–7167 / 64–6965 / 63–6864 / 61–6663 / 61–6662 / 59–6561 / 57–64

Each figure is the median across the 202 grid cells holding the 256 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 2650:2120 (-42.525, -73.975). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -4.6 °C, 1st-percentile night -2.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 18.6 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 202 distinct grid cells holding the 256 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2650:2120 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -42.50_-73.750, lapse-corrected +509 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 622 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeArgentina South, Chile Central, Chile South· introduced: Great Britain, Ireland, New South Wales, Tasmania, Victoria, New Zealand North, New Zealand South, Oregon, California
Kew's description“shrub” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-40.767, -72.25 · in the densest population, 170 records (64% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 264 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 128 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 13 km away. 1025 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 8 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 264 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Berberis darwiniiBerberis darwiniiBerberis darwiniiBerberis darwiniiBerberis darwiniiBerberis darwiniiBerberis darwiniiBerberis darwinii

Photographs: (c) Joe Potter Butler, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Cain Scrimgeour, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Julia Palmer, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Tony Wills, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Jon Sullivan, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Berberis darwinii, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Polyphenol Composition and (Bio)Activity of Berberis Species and Wild Strawberry from the Argentinean Patagonia
Melina Fernanda Chamorro, Gabriela Reiner, Cristina Theoduloz, Ana H. Ladio (2019) · Molecules
Total Synthesis of Lennoxamine and Chilenine via Ring-Expansion of Iso- indoloisoquinoline to Isoindolobenz- azepine
Tatsuo Nagasaka, Yuji Koseki, Shinya Katsura, Shuichi Kusano (2003) · Heterocycles
Efectos combinados del fuego y el ganado en matorrales y bosques del noroeste patagónico
Melisa Blackhall, Estela Raffaele, Thomas T. Veblen (2015) · Ecología Austral
Fruit and seed production in Berberis darwinii Hook., a shrub recently naturalised in New Zealand
Robert B. Allen, J. Bastow Wilson (1992) · New Zealand Journal of Botany
Effect of light on the growth and photosynthesis of an invasive shrub in its native range
Maya Svriz, María A. Damascos, Karen D. Lediuk, Santiago Varela (2014) · AoB Plants

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Berberis 3 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 70 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.