Berberis sanguinea

Berberis heteropda is in the barberry or Berberidaceae family and is a native of the mountains of Sichuan province in China.

• It is an evergreen, thorny shrub, growing 1.8–2.5 m tall, with glabrous, pale greyish branches that have very slender 3-forked spines, each fork up to 3.7 cm long.
• Leaves are deep green, linear-lanceolate, 2.7–7.5 cm long and 0.6– 0.9 cm across, in clusters of 2–5; leaves taper to a fine point, margins armed with forward-pointing, spiny teeth; petioles are very short.
• Flowers are, golden yellow, on reddish stalks of unequal length, the longest 2.1 cm long, flowers crowded in the leaf-axils at each joint; the outside of the sepals is reddish; flowers open in May.
• Fruit is a berry 1 cm long, scarlet, then blue-black.