The power of observation then curiosity.

And Mahonia part of the Berberidecae family.......have bright yellow stems and roots.
It's fascinating reading and listening about plants and their relatives and finding links between so many of them.

doing further reading 'they' seem to think that there should be only one genus of Berberis as the only morphological differences appears to be berbis simple leaves, Mahonia compound leaves.

DNA will no doubt give the answer in time.

Plant Finder lists 8 x mahoberberis which are hybrids formed from crossing a mahonia with a berberis, so they must be very closely related.

Interesting blog Seaburn......Carol Klein did a program on plant families a few years ago......it was really fascinating.

Interesting. I remember when I cut down a big Berberis when we moved in and I too was fascinated with the yellow wood. My mind is different to yours....rather than heading for the botany, I was curious about whether it would make a decent dye! But I haven't found out yet. I shall go and look it up now and let you know!

http://woolery.com/dyeing/natural-dyes/information-on-natural-dyes.html

YES! it does! and it also has medicinal qualities....

https://www.verywell.com/barberry-berberis-vulgaris-what-you-need-to-know-89546

So now we know! :)

Interesting stuff Karen. I heed the warning about self medication though!

Chicken and egg? Which comes first the observation or the curiosity?

fascinating.

curiosity and then I was taught to observe to find answers to my curiosity Siris.

Interesting responses thankyou.
I knew about the hybridisation Andrew, that is some of the reasons for putting them into one genus.