Species
+

Mahonia nervosa (Pursh) Nutt.

Cascade Oregon-grape, Cascade barberry, Cascade barberry, Cascade mahonia

Climate known 5 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 nervosa, commonly known as dwarf Oregon-grape, Cascade barberry, Cascade Oregon-grape, or dull Oregon-grape, is a North American flowering plant.

Text from Wikipedia, “Berberis nervosa”, 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
(Pursh) Nutt.
Native to
British Columbia, Idaho, Oregon +2
Wild records
786 in range· 94 open

At a glance

Warmest month
24°C
Aug, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1480mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Nov 239 mm (CHELSA)
Light
6–41DLI
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 winter growing season, October to March in the northern hemisphere (October to March at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1480 mm a year, wettest November at 239 mm, driest July at 26 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 6 to 41 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -5.9 °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 glumacea Spreng.; Berberis nervosa Pursh; Berberis nervosa var. mendocinensis Roof; Berberis nervosa var. nervosa; Berberis pinnata Buch and 5 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a winter growing season, October to March in the northern hemisphere (October to March at the habitat, northern).

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

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the year's rain (1122 mm of 1480 mm) falls in October to March, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 6.4 °C against a yearly mean of 10.4 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: April to September.

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 1480 mm a year, wettest November at 239 mm, driest July at 26 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1480 mm a year at the habitat, 1122 mm of it October to March. Wettest month November at 239 mm, driest July at 26 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1004 mm to 2393 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 41 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 6 to 41 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 5, the highest 90th-percentile month 46).

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 -5.9 °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 -5.9 °C, the absolute minimum -17.9 °C, about 32 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.7 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 1.4 °C in December (across the envelope cells -1.6 °C to 3.6 °C), warmest day 23.7 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -5.9 °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: 58 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 6 °C in Dec to 24 °C in Aug; mean night from 1 °C in Dec to 14 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Nov to Jan, is the three months around the coldest night. 1480 mm of rain a year, most in Nov. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 405 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -17.9 °C and the 99th-percentile day 36.7 °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°frost36.7° 99th-percentile day (undated)-17.9° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 6–41RH 58–66 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 405 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 °C7 / 4–88 / 6–1010 / 8–1313 / 11–1517 / 14–1920 / 16–2223 / 19–2724 / 20–2720 / 17–2415 / 12–179 / 7–116 / 4–8
Night °C2 / -1–42 / -1–44 / 1–55 / 2–78 / 6–911 / 9–1213 / 11–1514 / 12–1512 / 10–138 / 6–104 / 1–61 / -2–4
Rain mm217 / 141–348152 / 95–249148 / 93–246105 / 64–17681 / 51–13460 / 38–10726 / 16–6330 / 19–6856 / 37–108138 / 92–242239 / 163–376228 / 154–366
DLI7 / 6–913 / 12–1520 / 19–2229 / 28–3135 / 34–3838 / 36–4141 / 39–4636 / 34–4127 / 25–3115 / 13–198 / 6–106 / 5–8
RH %65 / 63–6963 / 61–6662 / 61–6461 / 59–6360 / 58–6260 / 58–6258 / 55–6159 / 55–6160 / 56–6263 / 61–6666 / 64–6965 / 62–69

Each figure is the median across the 405 grid cells holding the 762 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 886:1147 (45.675, -122.625). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -17.9 °C, 1st-percentile night -5.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.7 °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 405 distinct grid cells holding the 762 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 886:1147 (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 45.50_-122.500, lapse-corrected -178 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 79 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.
NativeBritish Columbia, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, California
Kew's description“subshrub or shrub” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker48.56, -122.944 · in the densest population, 559 records (71% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 786 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 94 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 22 km away. 24 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 of the 786 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Mahonia nervosaMahonia nervosaMahonia nervosaMahonia nervosa

Photographs: carbapple, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; Abby Hyde, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; Quillipede, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF (2).

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 nervosa, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Endophytic fungi in evergreen shrubs in western Oregon: A preliminary study
Orlando Petrini, Jeffrey K. Stone, Fanny E. Carroll (1982) · Canadian Journal of Botany
Biotransformation of thebaine by cell cultures of Papaver somniferum and Mahonia nervosa
R. Randy Wilhelm, Meinhart H. Zenk (1997) · Phytochemistry
Ecological Effects of Invasive Slugs, Arion rufus, on Native Cascade Oregon Grape, Mahonia nervosa
Logan Hillary Lauren, W. Lindsay Whitlow (2012) · Northwest Science
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility

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 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)
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.