Description
Whilst the American species of this small genus is known to some gardeners, it is seldom that the Japanese species is ever seen. This has very attractive leaves which appear in spring and persist through the summer, these are much divided and their appearance is rather like a Thalictrum.
This quietly attractive plant then makes a compact, clustered spike of small white or yellowish-cream flowers, like little Podophyllum blooms (to which this is related, as another member of the Barberry family). These flowers are followed by large, attractive turquoise-blue berries, the brilliancy of which cannot be adequately described, you really need to see them (but do not do more than look, as all parts of this plant are toxic, despite its ill-informed use in folk medicine).
This is best in light leafy or peaty soil in half shade, where it makes a long-lived companion plant to many of the other shade or woodland plants that we offer.
