Mahonia bealei (Fortune) Carrière
Beale's Barberry, Beale's Mahonia, Beale's Mahonia (EN), Beale-Mahonie (DE)
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 bealei, also known as leatherleaf mahonia, Beale's barberry, is a species of evergreen shrub native to mainland China. The species has been regarded as the same species as Berberis japonica, native to Taiwan, but the two differ consistently in certain floral and leaf characters. Both species are widely cultivated in many countries as ornamentals. Berberis bealei has reportedly escaped cultivation and become established in the wild in scattered places in the south-eastern United States from Arkansas to Florida to Delaware.
Text from Wikipedia, “Berberis bealei”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.
About the genus · Mahonia
Mahonia is a formerly accepted genus of approximately 70 species of shrubs or, rarely, small trees with evergreen leaves in the family Berberidaceae, native to eastern Asia, the Himalaya, North America, and Central America. They are closely related to the genus Berberis and as of 2023 the majority of botanical sources list it as a synonym for Berberis.
Text from Wikipedia, “Mahonia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.
At a glance
Also known as ? planifolia Hook.fil. & Thomson; Berberis bealei Fortune; Berberis bealei var. planifolia (Hook.fil. & Thomson) Laferr.; Berberis bealei var. planifolia Hook.; Berberis japonica Lindl. and 4 more.
Cultivation
Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, March to September in the northern hemisphere (March to September at the habitat, northern).
This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.
The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (1043 mm of 1386 mm) falls in March to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 21.6 °C against a yearly mean of 16.3 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: September 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 1386 mm a year, wettest June at 216 mm, driest December at 43 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
1386 mm a year at the habitat, 1043 mm of it March to September. Wettest month June at 216 mm, driest December at 43 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 977 mm to 1534 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern 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: 16 to 34 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 34 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 16, the highest 90th-percentile month 38).
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 -5.3 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -5.3 °C, the absolute minimum -15.2 °C, about 47 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 37.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -0.7 °C in January (across the envelope cells -1.6 °C to 0.0 °C), warmest day 31.9 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -5.3 °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.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 57 to 65% 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
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 8 / 4–8 | 10 / 5–10 | 14 / 9–15 | 20 / 14–21 | 25 / 19–26 | 28 / 23–28 | 32 / 27–33 | 31 / 27–32 | 27 / 24–28 | 22 / 20–23 | 16 / 13–17 | 10 / 7–11 |
| Night °C | -1 / -2–0 | 1 / -0–2 | 5 / 4–6 | 11 / 9–12 | 16 / 14–17 | 21 / 19–21 | 25 / 23–25 | 24 / 24–25 | 20 / 20–21 | 15 / 14–15 | 8 / 7–8 | 2 / 1–2 |
| Rain mm | 70 / 26–85 | 77 / 32–91 | 119 / 49–146 | 107 / 56–124 | 119 / 79–139 | 216 / 121–238 | 194 / 186–236 | 180 / 177–189 | 108 / 90–129 | 80 / 57–87 | 73 / 46–80 | 43 / 22–51 |
| DLI | 17 / 16–19 | 20 / 19–24 | 24 / 22–30 | 29 / 27–35 | 33 / 31–38 | 30 / 28–36 | 34 / 33–34 | 31 / 31–32 | 26 / 25–29 | 22 / 22–25 | 18 / 18–19 | 16 / 16–17 |
| RH % | 58 / 57–59 | 59 / 57–60 | 60 / 58–61 | 61 / 59–61 | 62 / 60–64 | 65 / 63–69 | 64 / 62–71 | 64 / 63–68 | 63 / 61–63 | 59 / 58–60 | 57 / 56–58 | 57 / 56–57 |
Each figure is the median across the 4 grid cells holding the 4 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 1192:6000 (30.375, 120.025). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -15.2 °C, 1st-percentile night -5.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 37.8 °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 4 distinct grid cells holding the 4 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1192:6000 (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 30.50_120.000, lapse-corrected -57 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 14 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: Tom Field, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; Ryan Goodman, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; arborizations, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; andrew2285, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF; A. Hunt, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF.
Photographs: iNaturalist 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 Mahonia bealei, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.
Related
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.
Ilex cornuta Chinese holly
Viburnum macrocephalum Chinese Snowball Viburnum
Heptacodium miconioides Seven Sons Tree
Acer buergerianum Chinese Maple
Styphnolobium japonicum Chinese Scholar TreeOther Mahonia 5 in the reference
Mahonia aquifolium Oregon grape
Mahonia nervosa Cascade Oregon-grape
Mahonia oiwakensis Berberidaceae
Mahonia repens Oregon Grape 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 answeredgbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search APIclimate answeredwikidata 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: skippedinat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)inat.photos.wild not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: not asked: 6 wild photographs already from the GBIF downloadinat.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 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)gbif.media answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedopenalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedEvery upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 1 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.





