Example ⟳ +
An example collection, so you can see what this page does. Nothing added here is kept: leaving deletes it.

Berberis moranensis Hebenstr. & Ludw. ex Schult. & Schult.f.

Berberidaceae · Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast +3

English names not checked: Wikidata's common names were not read for this page.

Photographs not checked iNaturalist and GBIF media were skipped (not asked) when this page was built. Not asked, or not answered, is not "none": nothing here claims there is none. Why the site says it this way.
Add one to my plants
Sow seed
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-1.4°C
Record low -6.9 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
22°C
Apr and May at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,058mm
7 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
31–46DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes June to September, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Berberis moranensis is a shrub in the genus Berberis in the family Berberidaceae. Because of its compound leaves, some botanists place it in the genus Mahonia. It is native to forested regions of the mountains of Mexico from Sinaloa and Guanajuato to Oaxaca. Berberis moranensis has thick waxy leaves, yellow flowers, and purple berries. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Berberis moranensis", CC BY-SA 4.0.

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.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Berberis", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (794 mm of 1,043 mm) falls in June to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 15.3 °C against a yearly mean of 13.8 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to March.

Rain

1,043 mm in the median year at the habitat, 794 mm of it June to September. Wettest month July at 233 mm, driest month December at 10 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 662 mm to 1,565 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,058 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,043 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 31 to 46 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 27, the highest 90th-percentile month 50).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -1.4 °C, the absolute minimum -6.9 °C, 356 frost nights in 44 years, 8.1 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 30.1 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 3.8 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 0.4 °C to 6.7 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 22.4 °C in May (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -1.4 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 48 to 66% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: 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 moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

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

Light. 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.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +226 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Berberis moranensis through the yearWarmest months April and May, mean daily high 22 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 3.8 °C; 1,043 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost30.1° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-6.9° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 31–46RH 48–66%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 160 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C17 / 14–2019 / 16–2221 / 18–2422 / 19–2622 / 20–2621 / 18–2419 / 17–2219 / 17–2219 / 16–2219 / 16–2218 / 16–2117 / 14–20
Night °C4 / 0–74 / 1–76 / 3–98 / 4–119 / 6–1210 / 8–1310 / 7–1310 / 7–1310 / 7–138 / 5–116 / 3–95 / 1–7
Rain mm19 / 11–5816 / 11–3315 / 7–2530 / 11–4563 / 30–109175 / 104–272233 / 116–335211 / 109–310175 / 115–28377 / 53–11319 / 12–5310 / 6–52
DLI32 / 29–3438 / 34–3944 / 41–4546 / 44–4844 / 42–5038 / 35–4136 / 33–3936 / 33–3933 / 30–3533 / 31–3532 / 30–3431 / 27–33
RH %52 / 48–5751 / 47–5548 / 44–5349 / 43–5454 / 48–5962 / 57–6665 / 62–6865 / 61–6966 / 61–7062 / 57–6556 / 51–6054 / 49–57
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 160 grid cells holding the 318 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1401:1610 (19.925, -99.475). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -6.9 °C, 1st-percentile night -1.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 30.1 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 160 distinct grid cells holding 318 of the 318 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1401:1610 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 20.00_-99.375, lapse-corrected +226 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 2566 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 the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.

This species has no GBIF key of its own. Its records are GBIF's under the key of the name Kew's World Checklist holds as this plant: 7300343 (Mahonia moranensis (Hebenstr. & Ludw. ex Schult. & Schult.fil.) I.M.Johnst., 485 records). No name was matched to GBIF; the keys are read from Kew's synonymy. How.

NativeMexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker19.454, -98.967 · in the densest population, 264 records (68% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 389 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 318 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 225 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 11 km away. 2 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 71 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
Other GBIF keysRecords also from GBIF's key 7300343 (Mahonia moranensis (Hebenstr. & Ludw. ex Schult. & Schult.fil.) I.M.Johnst.): Kew's file holds it as Mahonia moranensis (Hebenstr. & Ludw. ex Schult. & Schult.f.) I.M.Johnst. (synonym under Berberis moranensis Hebenstr. & Ludw. ex Schult. & Schult.f.); 485 records, from GBIF's download.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 389 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Not checked. iNaturalist and GBIF media were skipped (not asked) when this page was built. Not a statement that none exist.

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Symphoricarpos microphyllus Symphoricarpos microphyllus Small-leaved Snowberry Photo: CC0, author not statedSedum goldmanii Sedum goldmanii Crassulaceae Photo: CC BY, Alexis López HernándezCirsium ehrenbergii Cirsium ehrenbergii Red thistle Photo: CC BY, ElisaPenstemon roseus Penstemon roseus Pinto Beardtongue Photo: CC BY, Erick Vélez SánchezEcheveria secunda Echeveria secunda Blue Echeveria Photo: CC BY, Israel GuerreroMuhlenbergia macroura Muhlenbergia macroura Mexican broomroot Photo: CC BY, Carlos Domínguez-Rodríguez

Other Berberis 135 in the reference

Berberis actinacantha Berberis actinacantha Berberidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Nicolás Villaseca MerinoBerberis aemulans Berberis aemulans Berberidaceae Photo: Public domain, Charles Sprague Sargent (1841-1927)Berberis aetnensis Berberis aetnensis Berberidaceae Photo: CC BY, Yves BasBerberis aggregata Berberis aggregata Clustered barberry Photo: CC BY, Ola Vestre Berberis alpina Berberidaceae Berberis amurensis Berberis amurensis Amur barberry Photo: CC BY, Violetta DzizyurovaBerberis angulosa Berberis angulosa Berberidaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedBerberis aristata Berberis aristata Indian barberry Photo: CC BY, Sagnik Dutta RoyBerberis aristatoserrulata Berberis aristatoserrulata Berberidaceae Photo: CC BY, Cheng-Te HsuBerberis asiatica Berberis asiatica Berberidaceae Photo: CC BY, Patricia Rose Berberis atrocarpa Berberidaceae Berberis beaniana Berberis beaniana Berberidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz all 136 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Mahonia moranensis; Mahonia pinnata var. cachira; Mahonia moranensis var. cachira. (WCVP, RBG Kew)

Under another author Berberis pinnata Kunth and Berberis pinnata Sessé & Moc. is an older name of this species, not Berberis pinnata, a species of the reference. (GBIF Backbone)

IPNIPOWOWikidataWFOWikipedia

The record

Family
Berberidaceae
Described by
Hebenstr. & Ludw. ex Schult. & Schult.f.
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf +2
Wild records
389 in range · 225 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
Kew's names (WCVP) kew.names answeredas of 2026-06-04Kew's entry Berberis moranensis Hebenstr. & Ludw. ex Schult. & Schult.f. (plant_name_id 2674164), read from Kew's names file
GBIF species record gbif.species not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21this species has no GBIF key of its own; its records are read under GBIF's keys for the names Kew's file holds as this plant, never by a name matched; GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 485 records of GBIF's key 7300343, Mahonia moranensis (Hebenstr. & Ludw. ex Schult. & Schult.fil.) I.M.Johnst. (Kew's file holds it as Mahonia moranensis (Hebenstr. & Ludw. ex Schult. & Schult.f.) I.M.Johnst. (synonym under Berberis moranensis Hebenstr. & Ludw. ex Schult. & Schult.f.)): the GBIF download; 1 record within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (1 at a herbarium; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 20.00_-99.375, lapse-corrected +226 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22found by Kew's IPNI identifier 31484-2, POWO 31484-2
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
Wikimedia Commons commons nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 40 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…