Red leafed pea shrublet?

I was studying a group of crab trees yesterday for grafting possibilities and noticed a little shrublet growing underneath with bright red leaves - colored like blueberry leaves. We don’t have anything like that on our acreage but since this is a popular “drop spot” for the birds it could be from anywhere. But it did look vaguely familiar. Then I realized it looked very like a seedling of a Siberian Pea Shrub (which I have several of) but with red leaves! It has the little tiny barbs/whiskers like the PS, and the leaves (other than color) look the same, as does the stem. I haven’t had any luck searching the internet. Does anyone know what it might be?

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I think it is Berberis vulgaris. There are different cultivars with yellow and red leaves.

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yeah, looks like a barberry the birds planted for you.

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It looks like you are probably right. Sigh. I thought I had an interesting little shrub to plant out in the orchard (for diversity). But having planted Autumn Olive many decades ago (thanks to the Soil Conserv District) I certainly don’t want to repeat that mistake! (Our area, as many others, is now overrun with OA). I will transplant it instead to the compost pile. It is interesting that it looks so similar to the pea shrub. Thanks for the ID.

If you are looking for a native N-fixing plant that has good properties and is hardy to zone 3, you might look into partridge pea. It is an annual, but readily reseeds itself. I think it prefers sand, but I have seen it in dense stands of prairie grasses on clay loam too. It looks to be bee-friendly too.

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