Berberis pimana is a species of the genus Berberis in the family Berberidaceae. It is native to a mountainous region of the Sierra Madre Occidental in the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Sonora.[1]

Pima barberry
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Ranunculales
Family: Berberidaceae
Genus: Berberis
Species:
B. pimana
Binomial name
Berberis pimana
Laferr. & Marr.

Type locale for B. pimana is the village of Nabogame, 18 km northwest of Yepachic, Chihuahua. Nabogame is inhabited by people of the indigenous group known as the Mountain Pima or Pima Bajo. Berberis pimana grows in moist, shaded areas, mostly along streambanks. The people sometimes eat the sour-tasting berries.[2]

Berberis pimana is a deciduous shrub up to 1.5 m tall, with compound leaves thinner than those of most evergreen species of the genus. It has red, ellipsoid berries each with several yellow or red seeds. It is related to Berberis moranensis Schult. & Schult.f.[1]

The compound leaves place this species in the group sometimes segregated as the genus Mahonia. [3][4][5][6]

References edit

  1. ^ a b Laferrière, Joseph E., & Jorge S. Marroquín. 1990. Berberis pimana (Berberidaceae): a new species from northwestern Mexico. Madroño 37(4):283-288.
  2. ^ Laferrière, Joseph E., Charles W. Weber and Edwin A. Kohlhepp. 1991. Use and nutritional composition of some traditional Mountain Pima plant foods. Journal of Ethnobiology 11(1):93-114.
  3. ^ Flora of North America, vol 3
  4. ^ Loconte, H., & J. R. Estes. 1989. Phylogenetic systematics of Berberidaceae and Ranunculales (Magnoliidae). Systematic Botany 14:565-579.
  5. ^ Marroquín, Jorge S., & Joseph E. Laferrière. 1997. Transfer of specific and infraspecific taxa from Mahonia to Berberis. Journal of the Arizona-Nevada Academy of Science 30(1):53-55.
  6. ^ Laferrière, Joseph E. 1997. Transfer of specific and infraspecific taxa from Mahonia to Berberis. Bot. Zhurn. 82(9):96-99.