Berberis napaulensis(DC.) Spreng.

Siam hollygrape

WFO wfo-1200094246 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 7 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 7 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Berberis napaulensis, photographed by Dinesh Valke
fig. a Dinesh Valke, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2022-03-09 / obs. 184446144
Berberis napaulensis, photographed by Aravind_PS
fig. b Aravind_PS, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 88831677
Berberis napaulensis, photographed by Peter L Achuff
fig. c Peter L Achuff, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 113640856
Berberis napaulensis, photographed by Dinesh Valke
fig. d Dinesh Valke, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 184446148
Berberis napaulensis, photographed by Siddarth Machado
fig. e Siddarth Machado, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 52042217
Berberis napaulensis, photographed by desertnaturalist
fig. f desertnaturalist, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 95936379
Berberis napaulensis, photographed by Siddarth Machado
fig. g Siddarth Machado, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 66350033
Berberis napaulensis, photographed by Siddarth Machado
fig. h Siddarth Machado, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 61306720

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 10 botanical countries

Regions where Berberis napaulensis is native: China South-Central, China Southeast, Tibet, Assam, East Himalaya, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam, West Himalaya China South-CentralChina SoutheastTibetAssamEast HimalayaMyanmarNepalThailandVietnamWest Himalaya
Native distribution of Berberis napaulensis, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Assam ASS ASIA-TROPICAL
East Himalaya EHM
Myanmar MYA
Nepal NEP
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE
West Himalaya WHM
China South-Central CHC ASIA-TEMPERATE
China Southeast CHS
Tibet CHT

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 131 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -7.5 °C -1.5 °C 5.9 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 17.2 °C 19.8 °C 24.3 °C
Annual rainfall 1,447 mm 2,924 mm 4,121 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 38 mm 69 mm 140 mm

It is found where winters bring hard frost. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 131 research-grade observations of Berberis napaulensis that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 46 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Berberis acanthifolia Wall. ex Walp.
  • Berberis annamica (Gagnep.) Laferr.
  • Berberis borealis (Takeda) Laferr.
  • Berberis borealis var. parryi (Ahrendt) Laferr.
  • Berberis dolichostylis (Takeda) Laferr.
  • Berberis duclouxiana (Gagnep.) Laferr.
  • Berberis duclouxiana var. hilaica (Ahrendt) Laferr.
  • Berberis flavida (C.K.Schneid.) Laferr.
  • Berberis flavida var. integrifoliola (Hand.-Mazz.) Laferr.
  • Berberis gautamae Laferr.
  • Berberis griffithii (Takeda) Laferr.
  • Berberis intermedia (Dupuis) Anon.
  • Berberis keikoe Laferr.
  • Berberis leschenaultii Wall. ex Wight & Arn.
  • Berberis longlinensis (Y.S.Wang & P.G.Xiao) Laferr.
  • Berberis manipurensis (Takeda) Laferr.
  • Berberis miccia Buch.-Ham. ex D.Don
  • Berberis napaulensis var. leschenaultii (Wall. ex Wight & Arn.) Hook.f. & Thomson
  • Berberis pomensis (Ahrendt) Laferr.
  • Berberis salweenensis (Ahrendt) Laferr.
  • Berberis siamensis (Takeda) Laferr.
  • Berberis tsailunii Laferr.
  • Mahonia acanthifolia Wall. ex G.Don
  • Mahonia annamica Gagnep.

and 22 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. USDA PLANTS Database. common name, checklist symbol MASI13. public domain. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.