Species
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Mahonia bealei (Fortune) Carrière

Beale's Barberry, Beale's Mahonia, Beale's Mahonia (EN), Beale-Mahonie (DE)

Climate known 6 photographs
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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.

Family
Berberidaceae
Described by
(Fortune) Carrière
Native to
China South-Central, China North-Central, China Southeast
Wild records
4 in range· 0 open

At a glance

Warmest month
32°C
Jul, mean day; nights 25 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1386mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 216 mm (CHELSA)
Light
16–34DLI
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 summer growing season, March to September in the northern hemisphere (March to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1386 mm a year, wettest June at 216 mm, driest December at 43 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 34 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -5.3 °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 ? 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.

Temperature

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.

Humidity

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

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 8 °C in Jan to 32 °C in Jul; mean night from -1 °C in Jan to 25 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1386 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 4 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -15.2 °C and the 99th-percentile day 37.8 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost37.8° 99th-percentile day (undated)-15.2° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 16–34RH 57–65 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 4 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 °C8 / 4–810 / 5–1014 / 9–1520 / 14–2125 / 19–2628 / 23–2832 / 27–3331 / 27–3227 / 24–2822 / 20–2316 / 13–1710 / 7–11
Night °C-1 / -2–01 / -0–25 / 4–611 / 9–1216 / 14–1721 / 19–2125 / 23–2524 / 24–2520 / 20–2115 / 14–158 / 7–82 / 1–2
Rain mm70 / 26–8577 / 32–91119 / 49–146107 / 56–124119 / 79–139216 / 121–238194 / 186–236180 / 177–189108 / 90–12980 / 57–8773 / 46–8043 / 22–51
DLI17 / 16–1920 / 19–2424 / 22–3029 / 27–3533 / 31–3830 / 28–3634 / 33–3431 / 31–3226 / 25–2922 / 22–2518 / 18–1916 / 16–17
RH %58 / 57–5959 / 57–6060 / 58–6161 / 59–6162 / 60–6465 / 63–6964 / 62–7164 / 63–6863 / 61–6359 / 58–6057 / 56–5857 / 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

Native range as published by WCVP.
No openly licensed record to show inside the range.
NativeChina South-Central, China North-Central, China Southeast· introduced: Japan, Vietnam, Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia
Kew's description“shrub” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 4 georeferenced records inside the native range; none carries a licence permitting republication, so the map shows no points. 809 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. Under a dozen records: treat the map and the climate as indicative.

Photographs

Mahonia bealeiMahonia bealeiMahonia bealeiMahonia bealeiMahonia bealei

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.

Extracts from Traditional Chinese Medicinal Plants Inhibit Acetylcholinesterase, a Known Alzheimer’s Disease Target
Dorothea Kaufmann, Anudeep Kaur Dogra, Ahmad Tahrani, Florian Herrmann (2016) · Molecules
Antioxidant and antiproliferative properties of water extract from Mahonia bealei (Fort.) Carr. leaves
Weicheng Hu, Lingling Yu, Myeong‐Hyeon Wang (2010) · Food and Chemical Toxicology
Proteomics analysis of Mahonia bealei leaves with induction of alkaloids via combinatorial peptide ligand libraries
Lin Zhang, Wei Zhu, Yanzhen Zhang, Bingxian Yang (2014) · Journal of Proteomics
Isolation and structure determination of anti-influenza component from Mahonia bealei
Xiangying Zeng, Yulian Dong, Guoying Sheng, Xichang Dong (2006) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology
Purification, characterization, and determination of biological activities of water-soluble polysaccharides from Mahonia bealei
Mohib Ullah Kakar, Jingyi Li, Muhammad Zubair Mehboob, Rokayya Sami (2022) · Scientific Reports

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 Mahonia 5 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 search API
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 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 download
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 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: skipped
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 1 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.