All plants /Shrub /Agarita
Agarita
Mahonia trifoliolata, barberry family. Common in Central and West Texas.
At a glance
- What
- Red berries; flowers
- How
- Jelly, syrup, raw, wine
- When
- Flowers February to March, fruit April to May
- Where
- Dry brushland, rocky slopes, Hill Country and west
- Value
- Vitamin C, sugars
Caution: Stiff spines on every leaf tip. Wear gloves, or better, use the sheet trick.
Harvesting
Nobody picks agarita berries one at a time. Spread a sheet under the bush, tap the branches with a stick, and let the ripe fruit fall. Winnow out the leaves and you can gather a jelly batch in twenty minutes.
In the kitchen
The berries are tart and bright, closer to a currant than a blueberry. Classic uses are jelly and syrup; the strained juice also ferments into a pale country wine.
Identification notes
Three-part leaves, each leaflet tipped with holly-like spines, blue-green reading gray at a distance. With red berries present there is no dangerous look-alike in Texas.
Photo: Clarence A. Rechenthin @ USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Forages well with
Forage safely. Never eat a wild plant on this site's word alone. Confirm identity with several sources, learn the look-alikes, and when in doubt, leave it in the ground.