Berberis napaulensis
species of plant
Berberis napaulensis (syn. B. duclouxiana; Nepali: जमाने मान्द्रो, Chinese: 尼泊尔十大功劳) is a shrub in the family Berberidaceae described as a species in 1821. It is native to the Himalayas (northwestern India, Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim, Assam), and into the mountains of southwestern China (Tibet, Yunnan, Guangxi, and Sichuan), Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam, growing at altitudes of 1,200-3,000 metres. This species is used medicinally throughout the Sikkim Eastern Himalayas.
Description
Berberis napaulensis is an evergreen shrub (rarely a small tree) that grows to 1–7 metres tall. The leaves are 17–70 centimetres long and 7–22 cm broad, with 4-12 pairs of leaflets plus a larger terminal leaflet, all shiny above, yellowish-green below, and with spined margins. The flowers are yellow, borne in large panicles. The berries are spherical, deep purple, 5–8 millimetres in diameter.
Taxonomy
Berberis napaulensis was initially scientifically named and described by Augustin Pyramus de Candolle as Mahonia napaulensis in 1821. As part of a long running debate between botanists on whether Mahonia should be a synonym of Berberis, Kurt Polycarp Joachim Sprengel classified it as Berberis napaulensis in 1825.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Berberis napaulensis” is species of plant. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Berberis, napaulensis and species, not as a finished interpretation.
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The phrase “species of plant” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q17792720. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1821 and 1825.
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This entry incorporates text from “Berberis napaulensis” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.