Shrubs or herbs with alternate or basal leaves, with or without stipules, and solitary or racemed, mostly terminal flowers; sepals and petals generally overlapping in several series; stamens as many as the petals and opposite them; flowers perfect.

A smooth, trailing shrub. Leaves petioled, pinnate, leaflets 3—7, ovate or oval, oblique, obtuse, truncate or slightly cordate at the base, sessile thick, persistent, finely veiny, 1—2 inches long, with spine-bearing teeth. Flowers yellow, in several erect, dense, terminal racemes; berry globose, blue or purple.

A straggling shrub with spiny glossy dark green leaves, which change to beautiful tints of scarlets and yellows during midsummer and autumn. Frequent in the Rockies in woods; flowering in June.