An evergreen, glabrous shrub up to 6 ft high and wide; shoots strongly ribbed or angled, pale brown; spines three-parted, 1⁄2 to 1 in. long, stiff. Leaves oval to narrowly oval, tapered to both ends, 1 to 2 in. long, 1⁄4 to 3⁄4 in. wide, edged with small, sharp teeth, conspicuously veined. Flowers rich yellow, 1⁄3 in. across, crowded in axillary, compact clusters of eight to twelve, opening in late March and April; stalks about 1⁄4 in. long; petals five or six, notched at the rounded apex, giving the flowers a globose shape through being more or less concave; sepals very narrow, red at the back. Fruits oval, about 1⁄4 in. long, dark blue. Bot. Mag., t. 9622.
Native of Formosa; introduced by Wilson about 1918 and again by Yashiroda some twenty years later. It belongs to the Wallichianae group of barberries and being quite hardy, free and handsome in bloom, is well worth cultivating.