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. darwinii is a dense, medium-sized evergreen shrub, with dark glossy green, broadly oblong, sparsely-spined leaves, and drooping racemes of rich orange flowers, tinged red in bud, followed by blue-black berries