creeping Oregon grape

Photo: Anders Hastings https://www.inaturalist.org/people/andershastings — CC BY 4.0 · source

Survives zone 4 through 8

Harvest calendar

Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.

Sharp, tart — mostly for jelly; barberry dried as a spice.

Hardiness

Zone 4–8

Habit

Groundcover

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

Late summer–autumn

Mature size

Creeping shrub 0.3–1 m, spreading by underground stolons; containerable

Light

Partial (widest tolerance — full sun to full shade); excels in dry shade

Soil pH

5.5–7.0

Environment

Montane

Native range

Western North America — British Columbia south to California and east across the Rockies to Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico and the Dakotas; dry open woods, sagebrush and rocky slopes.

Status

Both wild and cultivated

Years to fruit

2–4 yrs

Growth speed

5–10 cm/year — slow, creeping outward rather than upward.

Spacing

60 cm (24 in) apart — about 2.8 per m² (2.6 per 10 sq ft)

Leaf shape

Evergreen, pinnate, with 3–7 broad spine-toothed leaflets that are dull blue-green rather than glossy — the matt finish separates it from tall Oregon grape at a glance — turning bronze-purple in winter.

Root system

Stoloniferous and shallow, running just under the surface and rooting as it goes to make a low spreading mat.

Fruit description

Round berries about 5 mm across — the smallest of the three Oregon grapes here — black beneath a heavy blue bloom, tart and seedy but good cooked.

Propagation

Seed sown fresh without drying, given at least three months cold stratification outdoors over winter. Also increased from semi-ripe stem cuttings, or — simplest of all — by lifting rooted suckers and dividing multi-stemmed clumps.

Pollination

Self-fertile — one plant crops on its own. The stamens are touch-sensitive, snapping inward when an insect probes the nectar glands at their base and dusting the visitor with pollen; where insects are absent the anthers usually meet the stigma as the flower fades.

The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.