Species
+

Berberis vulgaris L.

Barberry, Common barberry, European Berbery, European barberry

Climate known 86 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

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 vulgaris, also known as common barberry, European barberry or simply barberry, is a shrub in the genus Berberis native to the Old World. It produces edible but sharply acidic berries, which people in many countries eat as a tart and refreshing fruit.

Text from Wikipedia, “Berberis vulgaris”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Berberis

Berberis, commonly known as barberry, is a large genus of deciduous and evergreen shrubs from 1–5 m tall, found throughout temperate and subtropical regions of the world. Species diversity is greatest in South America and Asia, but native species also appear in Europe, Africa, and North America.

Text from Wikipedia, “Berberis”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Berberidaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia +30
Wild records
561 in range· 170 open

At a glance

Warmest month
23°C
Jul, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
853mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 91 mm (CHELSA)
Light
6–36DLI
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: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (May to December in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 853 mm a year, wettest June at 91 mm, driest February at 49 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 6 to 36 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -14.0 °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 Berberis angulizans G.Nicholson; Berberis bigelowii Schrad.; Berberis calliobotrys Bien. ex Aitch.; Berberis lycium K.Koch; Berberis vulgaris f. vulgaris and 4 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (May to December in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (631 mm of 853 mm) takes 8 months, May to December. Mean temperature moves 19.8 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to June.

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 853 mm a year, wettest June at 91 mm, driest February at 49 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

853 mm a year at the habitat, 631 mm of it May to December. Wettest month June at 91 mm, driest February at 49 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 559 mm to 1490 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: 6 to 36 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 6 to 36 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 4, the highest 90th-percentile month 39).

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 -14.0 °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 -14.0 °C, the absolute minimum -26.5 °C, about 110 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -4.4 °C in January (across the envelope cells -10.9 °C to -1.6 °C), warmest day 23.0 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -14.0 °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: 59 to 66% 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 2 °C in Jan to 23 °C in Jul; mean night from -4 °C in Jan to 14 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 853 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 448 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -26.5 °C and the 99th-percentile day 31.8 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost31.8° 99th-percentile day (undated)-26.5° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 6–36RH 59–66 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 448 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 °C2 / -3–44 / -1–68 / 3–1013 / 7–1518 / 13–2021 / 17–2423 / 19–2623 / 19–2618 / 15–2114 / 10–167 / 3–93 / -2–5
Night °C-4 / -11–-2-4 / -10–-1-0 / -6–23 / -2–58 / 3–1012 / 6–1414 / 9–1614 / 9–1610 / 6–126 / 1–81 / -6–3-3 / -10–-0
Rain mm54 / 28–9849 / 27–8660 / 33–10959 / 35–10784 / 56–14091 / 61–16691 / 59–17586 / 57–17075 / 49–13471 / 37–12167 / 40–11566 / 38–116
DLI8 / 5–1214 / 10–1821 / 18–2730 / 27–3534 / 33–3836 / 34–3935 / 33–3930 / 28–3422 / 19–2715 / 12–199 / 6–126 / 4–10
RH %65 / 60–6962 / 60–6660 / 58–6359 / 56–6159 / 56–6259 / 57–6259 / 56–6259 / 56–6362 / 59–6464 / 61–6566 / 62–6866 / 61–70

Each figure is the median across the 448 grid cells holding the 556 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 831:3911 (48.425, 15.575). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -26.5 °C, 1st-percentile night -14.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.8 °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 448 distinct grid cells holding the 556 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 831:3911 (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 48.50_15.625, lapse-corrected -111 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 324 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeAustria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Switzerland, Corse, France, Sardegna, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Romania, Sicilia, Yugoslavia, Belarus, Baltic States, Krym, Central European Russia, East European Russia, South European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Ukraine, Algeria, Morocco, Uzbekistan, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Iran, Turkey· introduced: Denmark, Finland, Great Britain, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Netherlands, Portugal, North European Russia, West Siberia, New Zealand South, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward I., Québec, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Washington, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont, West Virginia, New Mexico, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia
Kew's description“shrub” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker48.125, 16.218 · in the densest population, 364 records (65% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 561 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 170 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 385 km away. 168 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 5 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 561 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Berberis vulgarisBerberis vulgarisBerberis vulgarisBerberis vulgarisBerberis vulgarisBerberis vulgarisBerberis vulgarisBerberis vulgaris

Photographs: (c) Tom Norton, some rights reserved (CC BY) (6); (c) Thomas Koffel, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons 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 Berberis vulgaris, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Facile green synthesis of silver nanoparticles using Berberis vulgaris leaf and root aqueous extract and its antibacterial activity
Mahmoodreza Behravan, Ayat Hossein Panahi, Ali Naghizadeh, Masood Ziaee (2018) · International Journal of Biological Macromolecules
Pharmacological and therapeutic effects of Berberis vulgaris and its active constituent, berberine
Mohsen Imanshahidi, Hossein Hosseinzadeh (2008) · Phytotherapy Research
Berberine and barberry ( Berberis vulgaris ): A clinical review
Mohsen Imenshahidi, Hossein Hosseinzadeh (2019) · Phytotherapy Research
Berberis Vulgaris and Berberine: An Update Review
Mohsen Imenshahidi, Hossein Hosseinzadeh (2016) · Phytotherapy Research
In vitro biological assessment of berberis vulgaris and its active constituent, berberine: antioxidants, anti-acetylcholinesterase, anti-diabetic and anticancer effects
Abeer E. Abd El-Wahab, Doaa A. Ghareeb, Eman EM Sarhan, Marwa M. Abu‐Serie (2013) · BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Conditional outcomes in plant–herbivore interactions: neighbours matter
Elena Baraza, Regino Zamora, José A. Hódar (2006) · Oikos
Study on the anti-inflammatory action of Berberis vulgaris root extract, alkaloid fractions and pure alkaloids
Nina Ivanovska, Stefan Philipov (1996) · International Journal of Immunopharmacology
Phytochemistry and Pharmacology of Berberis Species
Soodabeh Saeidnia, AhmadReza Gohari, Mahdieh Kurepaz-Mahmoodabadi, Najmeh Mokhber-Dezfuli (2014) · Pharmacognosy Reviews/Bioinformatics Trends/Pharmacognosy review
Evaluation of antioxidant activities and phenolic content of Berberis vulgaris L. and Berberis croatica Horvat
Marijana Zovko Končić, Dario Kremer, Ksenija Karlović, Ivan Kosalec (2010) · Food and Chemical Toxicology
A pharmacological study on Berberis vulgaris fruit extract
Mohammad Fatehi, Tarek M. Saleh, Zahra Fatehi‐Hassanabad, Khadijeh Farrokhfall (2005) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology

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 Berberis 3 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 2026-09-20 (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); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried 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 not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried 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 8 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.