Description

Nandina domestica (icon ) commonly known as nandina, heavenly bamboo or sacred bamboo, is a suckering shrub

Shrub

A shrub or bush is distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and shorter height, usually under 5–6 m tall. A large number of plants may become either shrubs or trees, depending on the growing conditions they experience...

 in the Barberry family, Berberidaceae

Berberidaceae

Berberidaceae are a family of 15 genera flowering plants commonly called the barberry family. This family is in the order Ranunculales. The family contains about 570 species, of which the majority are in Berberis...

. It is a monotypic genus, with this species as its only member. It is native to eastern Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

 from the Himalaya east to Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

.

Despite the common name, it is not a bamboo at all. It is an erect shrub

Shrub

A shrub or bush is distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and shorter height, usually under 5–6 m tall. A large number of plants may become either shrubs or trees, depending on the growing conditions they experience...

 growing to 2 m tall (7'-8' in the Pacific Northwest), with numerous, usually unbranched stems growing from the root

Root

In vascular plants, the root is the organ of a plant that typically lies below the surface of the soil. This is not always the case, however, since a root can also be aerial or aerating . Furthermore, a stem normally occurring below ground is not exceptional either...

s. The glossy leaves

Leaf

A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....

 are evergreen

Evergreen

In botany, an evergreen plant is a plant that has leaves in all seasons. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which completely lose their foliage during the winter or dry season.There are many different kinds of evergreen plants, both trees and shrubs...

 (sometimes deciduous

Deciduous

Deciduous means "falling off at maturity" or "tending to fall off", and is typically used in reference to trees or shrubs that lose their leaves seasonally, and to the shedding of other plant structures such as petals after flowering or fruit when ripe...

 in colder areas), 50–100 cm long, bi- to tri-pinnately compound, with the individual leaflets 4–11 cm long and 1.5–3 cm broad. The young leaves in spring are brightly coloured pink to red before turning green; old leaves turn red or purple again before falling. The flower

Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...

s are white, borne in early summer in conical clusters held well above the foliage. The fruit

Fruit

In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...

 is a bright red berry

Berry

The botanical definition of a berry is a fleshy fruit produced from a single ovary. Grapes are an example. The berry is the most common type of fleshy fruit in which the entire ovary wall ripens into an edible pericarp. They may have one or more carpels with a thin covering and fleshy interiors....

 5–10 mm diameter, ripening in late autumn and often persisting through the winter.

Toxicity

All parts of the plant are poisonous, containing hydrocyanic acid, and could potentially be fatal if ingested. The plant is placed in Toxicity Category 4, the category "generally considered non-toxic to humans," however, the berries are considered toxic to cats and grazing animals. The berries also contain alkaloids such as nantenine

Nantenine

Nantenine is an alkaloid found in the plant Nandina domestica as well as some Corydalis species. It is an antagonist at both the α1 adrenergic receptor and the 5-HT2A serotonin receptor, and blocks both the behavioural and physiological effects of MDMA in animals.-See...

, which is used in scientific research as an antidote to MDMA. Birds are not affected by these toxins and will disperse the seeds through their droppings.

Status as an invasive species

Nandina is considered invasive in North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida. It has been placed on the Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council’s invasive list as a Category I species, the highest listing. It's been observed in the wild throughout Florida in Gadsden

Gadsden County, Florida

Gadsden County is a county located in the panhandle of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2000 census, the population was 45,087. The U.S. Census Bureau 2005 estimate for the county is 46,428 . Its county seat is Quincy, Florida. Gadsden County is the only predominantly African-American...

, Leon

Leon County, Florida

Leon County is a county located in the state of Florida, named after the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León. At the 2010 Census, the population was 275,487. The county seat of Leon County is Tallahassee which also serves as the state capital. The county seat is home to two of Florida's major...

, Jackson

Jackson County, Florida

Jackson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Florida. The population as of the 2000 census was 46,755. As of 2005, the population was estimated to be 48,985 . Its county seat is Marianna, Florida.- History :...

, Alachua, and Citrus

Citrus County, Florida

Citrus County is a county located in the U.S. state of Florida. As of 2000, the population was 118,085. The U.S. Census Bureau 2008 estimate for the county was 141,416 . Its county seat is Inverness, Florida...

 counties, in conservation areas, woodlands, and floodplains. In general, the purchase or continued cultivation of these plants in locations with similar climates to the Southeastern US is highly discouraged, unless they are a legally established non-fertile variety.

Garden history and cultivation

N. domestica, grown in Chinese and Japanese gardens for centuries, was brought to Western gardens by William Kerr

William Kerr (gardener)

William Kerr was a Scottish gardener and plant hunter, the first Western professional full-time plant collector active in China. He also collected in Java and Luzon in the Philippines...

, who sent it to London in his first consignment from Canton

Guangzhou

Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...

, in 1804. The English, unsure of its hardiness, kept it in greenhouses at first. The scientific name given it by Carl Peter Thunberg

Carl Peter Thunberg

Carl Peter Thunberg aka Carl Pehr Thunberg aka Carl Per Thunberg was a Swedish naturalist and an apostle of Carl Linnaeus. He has been called "the father of South African botany" and the "Japanese Linnaeus"....

 is a Latinized version of a Japanese name for the plant, nan-ten. Nandina is widely grown in garden

Garden

A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the display, cultivation, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The garden can incorporate both natural and man-made materials. The most common form today is known as a residential garden, but the term garden has...

s as an ornamental plant

Ornamental plant

Ornamental plants are plants that are grown for decorative purposes in gardens and landscape design projects, as house plants, for cut flowers and specimen display...

; over 65 cultivar

Cultivar

A cultivar'Cultivar has two meanings as explained under Formal definition. When used in reference to a taxon, the word does not apply to an individual plant but to all those plants sharing the unique characteristics that define the cultivar. is a plant or group of plants selected for desirable...

s have been named in Japan, where the species is particularly popular and a national Nandina society exists. In Shanghai

Shanghai

Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...

 berried sprays of Nandina are sold in the streets at the New Year, for the decoration of house altars and temples.

Nandina does not berry profusely in Great Britain, but it can be grown in USDA

United States Department of Agriculture

The United States Department of Agriculture is the United States federal executive department responsible for developing and executing U.S. federal government policy on farming, agriculture, and food...

 hardiness zones 4–10. Nandina can take heat and cold, from 110 °F/43 °C to 10 °F/-12 °C.
A true low-care plant, nandina needs no pruning ever, unless it is to harvest some leaves for use in a flower arrangement or berries for a holiday centerpiece. The berries can also be left on the plants for birds to harvest in late winter. Spent berry stalks can easily be snapped off by hand in spring. Due to the naturally occurring phytochemicals (see above) this plant is commonly used in rabbit, deer, and javelina resistant landscape plantings.