Berberidaceae

Shrubs and non-woody (herbaceous) perennials with most flower parts in multiples of 3, and berries or berry-like structures as fruit, but much variation in vegetative features.

Flower arrangement may be solitary or in clusters (racemes, cymes or panicles). All flower parts free and distinct. Flowers white, yellow, green or purple, producing both pollen and seeds, symmetrical in all directions (radially). Petals 6 or 9, in two or three rows, often overlapping, sometimes smaller than the sepals and with two glands at the base of each (in Barberries) or represented only by small, fan-shaped, gland-like, nectar-producing structures that are opposite and much shorter than the sepals (in Blue Cohosh).Sepals 6, overlapping, arranged in two rows, often petal-like, sometimes falling off early. Sepals often supported at their bases by 2-4 bracts that may be sepal-like or small. Stamens mostly 6, but twice as many as the petals in Mayapple, usually opposite the petals, their pollen-producing structures (anthers) mostly opening by pores with lids. The stamens of Barberries are touch-sensitive and snap forward when touched by an insect, dusting it with pollen. Carpel 1; ovary 1, located above the point of attachment of the other flower parts; stigma cap-like or 3-lobed.

Fruit a red or yellow berry, or in Blue Cohosh, a blue, fleshy, berry-like seed.

Leaves simple sometimes lobed or dissected, to compound, bluish-green when young in Blue Cohosh, mostly alternate and spiral, but opposite and umbrella-like in Mayapple. Leaf margins may have no teeth or be saw-toothed, sometimes with spiny tips on the teeth. Stipules usually absent.

Stems of woody plants often with spines and the wood often yellow. Fruits of some species may be edible (Common Barberry, Mayapple), but may have poisonous seeds (Mayapple), and some plants in this family are highly poisonous (e.g., Blue Cohosh).

Non-woody members of this family are all north temperate in distribution, while woody members occur in both northern and southern hemispheres.