Best Berberidaceae
A thorny Patagonian shrub bearing small tart blue-black berries central to Argentinian and Chilean folk legend, which holds that eating them guarantees a return to Patagonia.
Berberis vulgaris, native to Europe and western Asia, contains the alkaloid berberine throughout its tissues and was historically cultivated for its tart red berries used in preserves and traditional medicine.
Blue cohosh, Caulophyllum thalictroides, is a perennial woodland wildflower native to eastern North America and a member of the barberry family. It produces small greenish or yellowish flowers in spring, followed by conspicuous blue, berry-like seeds. Indigenous peoples historically used the plant i...
Mahonia aquifolium is an evergreen shrub native to western North America and the official state flower of Oregon, bearing tart blue-purple berries used by Indigenous peoples for food and yellow dye.
A North American woodland plant whose ripe yellow fruit is its only edible part, while all other parts contain podophyllotoxin, a compound used in anticancer drug synthesis.
