Abstract:Variation patterns of the characters of fruits and leaf spines of Berberis amurensis Rupr.were investigated by field population sampling and statistical analysis in Taishan Mountain,Shandong Province.(1)Eight hundred and fifty six ripe fruits were gathered from every 10 infructescences sampled from 20 adult individuals of B.amurensis,and the fruits were shiny red in colour,and varied in both shape and size.In the 856 fruits sampled,the seed numbers per fruit varied from 1 to 5,Mean±SD=1.64±0.71,and the number of 1-seeded to 5-seeded fruits were,in turn,406,365,72,12 and 1,respectively.Nevertheless,literatures all showed that fruits of B.amurensis contained only 2 seeds.(2)In 200 infructescences of B.amurensis,the proportions of 1-seeded to 3-seeded fruits in each infructescence were all 0～100%,and the proportions of 4-seeded fruits in each infructescence were 0～60.0%.(3)Three hundreds and eighty six spines were found from every two 1-year shoots sampled from 20 adults of B.amurensis,the spine types exhibited a continuous variation pattern from solitary spine to 8-fid spine,and the number of solitary to 5-fid spines were,in turn,183,53,136,5 and 6,respectively,while only 1 spine for each of the 6-fid to 8-fid spine types.Solitary spine,2-fid and 3-fid spines were all high in percent occurrence,92.50%,75.00% and 80.00%,respectively,among the forty 1-year shoots,and were the three dominant leaf spines of B.amurensis.Whereas literatures all reported that mostly trifid spines,rarely solitary spines appeared in B.amurensis.Thus,in Berberis,further intraspecific patterns of morphological variation can be elucidated by field population sampling.