A year of flowers #16: Oregon grape

Mahonia repens

My Oregon grape is a little sad, but it is blooming now, so...  My understanding is that the jury is out among botanists as to whether the tall Oregon grape is the same species as the creeping ground-cover version we see around here.  These tall ones might be up on Kamiak Butte or around somewhere, but the creeping variety is certainly more common in my experience. One way to get native plants is to purchase them from local professionals, and I purchased two of these years ago from a reliable local source as Oregon grape, and they are indeed Mahonia repens.  But they don't creep.  In fact, they really want to shrub.

The thought is that, if they are the same species, then the conditions they are grown in determines their growth habit, and I read somewhere that, if the plant has it too easy, it grows into a bush, but stress might make it send out runners and grow as a ground cover.  As a last resort I thought, well... maybe I should stress them.  OK, so I hit this one with the Dr. Field and Brush mower last year.  It hasn't shown any signs of creeping.  Yet.  But I think I will find a runner of a creeping one in the gravel beside the road here, and leave this one alone to be whatever it is.  I have one I bought at the Idaho Native Plant Society sale several years ago that seems to have more of a creeping attitude, but is too young to bloom.  Anyway, my contribution to the botanical debate on Mahonia repens--the shrub and creeping varieties sure don't seem like the same plant here.