Creeping Mahonia               ma-HO-ni-a RE-penz

• Evergreen shrub/ground cover, stiff habit, stoloniferous.  Leaves dull blue-green, pinnately compound, 3-7 broad leaflets, 2.5-6.5 cm, spine toothed, bronzy or purple in winter.  Deep yellow flowers on 2.5-7.5 cm racemes (spring).  Black fruit covered with blue bloom, 5 mm diam. (fall).
• Sun to partial shade.
• Hardy to USDA Zone 5 and protected parts of Zone 4, best with good snow cover (Snyder, 2000).     Native range from British Columbia to California and northern Mexico, eastward to the Rocky Mountains and in the Black Hill of South Dakota.
• Mahonia: after Bernard McMahon (born 1816), American nurseryman.   repens: creeping.
• Oregon State Univ. campus: east and west of main entry to Owen Hall (ECE).