The birds plant these for me. They look like a holly, but they aren’t. This is a wild edible berry that grows down here on the edge of dry forests. What is it? It’s a Mahonia trifoliolata (aka agarita berry). It’s a type of barberry and is our South Texas version of a currant.
I never pull these. Wherever they come up, I’m happy to have them. In our forested area, around our house, there’s tons of these bushes. Some springs, our forest is full of people walking around harvesting these berries.
I’ve heard people call this “snake bush” because rattlesnakes will sit under them and wait for birds. This might sound like a bad thing to have in your yard, but snakes sit under everything that has berries. They’re not particular about how they catch birds, just that they do.
Because of the snake issue and agarita’s pokey leaves: my favorite way to harvest these is to lay a tarp down and beat the bush with a long stick. The ripe berries will drop off. (Mulberry and olive harvesting is similar.) some people use an umbrella to catch the berries and I’ve also seen people use 5 gallon buckets from the hardware store.
These are small, like currants. It takes a while to get enough to make something with the berries, but it’s very worth it. I enjoy them fresh, as I don’t need to do much sifting through the bugs and leaves (etc) that fall with the berries. But to make a pie or jelly you do need to winnow the berries.
You can aim a fan, on high, at a tarp full of berries and all the garbage will blow away and you can go about making something with them. Here’s a great article I found with recipes: https://texasbutterflyranch.com/2019/06/14/from-seed-to-harvest-ornery-agarita-a-challenge-but-worth-it/
Here’s a lady that made a homemade berry winnower here: https://wp.me/p6yt1D-e
I do not have enough of these in my yard to use them for anything, but: I have maybe ten plants slowly growing from seed. Until mine start bearing berries I’ll be walking along our forest edges to harvest as many wild berry bushes that I can find (wearing jeans and boots!) Keeping an eye out for snakes, and poking my long stick into the bush to make sure I haven’t picked a bush that’s already occupied!
See you out in the forest, to feed my agarita addiction!
Crazy Green Thumbs
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So, this is like the Oregon grape? I never see Oregon grape make enough fruit here to do anything with, but was impressed by their production in, of all places, Oregon.
I think people call a lot of different barberry relatives Oregon grapes. But from what I see those are mainly a dusty blue/purple and agarita is a bright pink/red. Texas A&M horticulture has one of it’s monikers listed as “Texas Oregon grape”. But I think out on the west coast you guys have something in the same genus but a different species than what we have. It takes a lot of wandering to hit enough bushes for a decent harvest but it’s a nice family or friend outing, as you slowly walk and talk through our dry forests. Agarita has bumper years and sparse years depending on if we get a heavy winter freeze plus it’s dependent on spring rains. They flower in February and we start seeing fruit in April. I enjoy wild foraging down here. The wild Blackberries (dew berries) are delicious! If I end up with agarita seed this year I’ll try to send you some. But, I think they really love our dry heat.
Yes, it is a different species, and looks very different, with dark green leaves. Some of the several cultivars that are also known as Oregon grape are actually different species. That would be interesting to try agarita, but I doubt that I could grow enough to produce many berries.
It would be a great plant for someone to breed for higher yield. The berries are pretty tasty! Another plant that does well down here is loquat (although not native). It is in the beginning stages of breeding for improved fruit. I like them a lot, but they have a huge set of seeds.
A few cultivars of loquat have been available at least since 1989, but after all these years, I have not noticed any newer cultivars. Mine was feral, and although I prefer feral or wild versions of most of such ‘unimproved’ fruit, loquat is one exception. If I grow it again, I may get a single cultivar. (I believe that none of them require a pollinator.) I only learned in the last decade or so about the cultivars of American black elderberry. I still intend on getting wild specimens though. Also, there are cultivars of pawpaw and American persimmon. So, if breeders can select cultivars of elderberry, pawpaw and American persimmon, they could just as easily select or breed cultivars of agarita and perhaps even Oregon grape (from Oregon).