Berberis thunbergii

Japanese barberry is in the barberry or Berberidaceae family and is native to Japan and eastern Asia, though widely naturalized in China and in North America. It is a small deciduous shrub (1 m tall by 2.5 m broad) with green leaves turning red in the autumn, brilliant red fruits in autumn and pale yellow flowers in spring.

• Branches are deeply grooved, brown, spiny, with a single (occasionally trident-shaped) spine at each shoot node.
• Leaves are green to blue-green (reddish or purple in some horticultural variants), very small, spatula to oval shaped, 12–24 mm long and 3–15 mm broad; they are produced in clusters of 2–6 on a dwarf shoot in the axil of each spine.
• Flowers are pale yellow, 5–8 mm diameter, produced in drooping 1–1.5 cm long umbrella-shaped clusters of 2–5; flowering is from mid spring to early summer.
• The edible fruit is a glossy bright red to orange-red, ovoid berry 7–10 mm long and 4–7 mm broad, containing a single seed. They mature during late summer and fall and persist through the winter.