Sacred Bamboo, Nandina

Plant: Erect, bushy evergreen shrub, stems resembling a fleshy bamboo, to 8 ft (2.5 m) tall, with glossy pinnately- to bipinnately-compound leaves, green or reddish tinged, white to pinkish flowers in terminal clusters yield bright red berries in the fall and winter. Persists and spreads from sprouts and prolific animal-dispersed seeds.

Stem: Sparsely to much branched, slightly resembling bamboo being jointed, alternate branching, tightly stacked at terminal, slightly fleshy and hairless above, becoming woody-barked below. Pith bright yellow.

Leaves: Opposite and whorled, glossy evergreen, bipinnately compound, 1.5-3 ft (0.5-1 m) long, leaflets lanceolate to deltoid-lanceolate, 9-81, 0.5-4 in (1.2-10 cm) long and 0.4-1.2 in (1.1-3 cm) wide, nearly sessile, leaf-stalks (long slender), leaflets light-green to dark-green sometimes red tinged and sometimes becoming burgundy in winter, joints distinct segments often reddish tinged, base of leaf stalks clasping stems with a V-notch on the opposite side of attachment.

Flowers: May-Jul. Terminal (or axillary) panicles of hundreds of flowers, 4-8 in (10-20 cm) long, pink in bud becoming white to cream to yellow, fragrant, 0.2-0.4 in (6-8 mm) long, 3 (2-4) lanceolate petals, deciduous.

Fruit and seeds: Sep-Dec. Berries light-green ripening to

* USDA, NRCS. 2001. The PLANTS Database, Version 3.1 (http://plants.usda.gov). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA. February 5, 2002.