Algerita or Chapparal Berry

Description:

Leaves: evergreen, alternate, stiff spines on margins of three leaflets, green-gray to blue-green color, stiff and holly-like. Growth: Avg. 6.5 feet tall, shrubby, often forming thickets. Bark: rough brown on older wood. Inner bark of stems is yellow. Flowers: Small clusters of bright yellow and fragrant flowers, may appear in late February-April in Trans-Pecos area. Fruit: Red berry with one to several seeds, favored as wildlife food. Ripen in May-June. It can be differentiated from red barberry (B. haematocarpa) by its three leaflets joined at a central point (trifoliate).

Habitat:

Low to moderate water, full sun to light partial shade, any well draining soil, very cold hardy. Usually found in lower elevations than B. haematocarpa. This spotting was photographed alongside a wide arroyo edged on one side by tall cliffs, and was prolific in composite thickets of other shrubs and vines.

Notes:

Good wildlife shrub. The fruits are eaten by a wide variety of animals: songbirds, rabbit, coyote (fruit and seed often found in their scat), etc. Thickets produce excellent cover for quail and small mammals. Beware of rattlesnakes coiled near base; they prey on visiting birds. Berries are juicy, tart, and edible. Can be harvested to make jam or jelly, but tough competition with the wildlife; they are quickly eaten. Native Americans used stems to make a yellow dye. This was found and photographed during a cold December morning excursion down a wide arroyo, which was like an oasis, even in the winter. A significant variety of vegetation grows here, unlike the surrounding ocotillo and lechuguilla desert typical of this area. Prolific signs and tracks of many mammals: rabbit, deer, javelina, coyote and cougar. A perfect example of a local micro-ecosystem. I will return to explore another season for further sitings and photographs. Cannot provide exact GPS coordinates. Did not have GPS on me and cannot locate on PN map, which labels the area as Brewster, Kansas?