Berberis can be deciduous or evergreen shrubs with spiny shoots bearing simple, often spine-toothed leaves, and small yellow or orange flowers in axillary clusters or racemes, followed by small berries
B. dictyophylla is a spiny, medium-sized deciduous shrub, with white-bloomed young stems. Obovate leaves, white beneath, turn red and yellow in autumn. Flowers solitary, large, pale yellow. Berries red, bloomed white