Agarito blooms very early, even in February, and in a good year the bush presents a mass of highly fragrant, brilliant yellow blossoms.
B. swaseyi blooms slightly later - as the frost-covered blooms below demonstrate. There is a short period when both species are in flower - a window facilitating hybridization. Interestlingly, the plants identified as hybrids on other grounds have been shown to peak between the peak periods of the nonhybrids.
The agarito berries ripen to red by late spring, and their sweet tart flavor offers a refreshing snack. On occasion we have collected enough to make jelly, but the sharp points of the holly-like leaves make this a challenging task. [We did try the 'beat-the-bush' approach once, but avoiding damage to the brittle stems made it no more efficient than just picking directly.] Our dogs too covet the berries and stop and beg beside bearing plants - but they know not to stick their snout into the bush.
B. swaseyi berries often (but not always) have a hollow cavity surrounded by a sweet and juicy flesh. They vary considerably from plant to plant, in size, in shape, in color, in the amount of fruity flesh, and in the size and color of seeds. The current botanical literature on this species would seem to be based on an extremely limited sampling, in one instance apparently solely on dried herbarium specimens. I hope to present the results of a survey of the fruits of some 40 B. swaseyi plants in the near future. (Of the 500 plants counted on our 50-acre tract in 2002, some 120 still had fruit in the first week of June - although many were already losing their berries.)
This is one plant the deer never touch. But it too has its predators. Some years virtually all the new growth is taken by a worm specializing in Berberis (both species) - tentatively linked to a pyralid moth, Omphalocera dentosa, by David Wagner of the Univ. of Connecticut.
