Mahonia aquifolium is in flower all over the place; it was popular as a garden shrub and has been much (over)used in municipal planting schemes. However its natural habitat is the understorey of the forests of the Pacific North-West of America.

 M. aquifolium is seen to much better effect where it has naturalised as a garden escape or remnant. The patch above was on a roadside bank under trees not far away from the specimen in the first photo. I fancy this is rather more like the way it grows in the wild.

 Town planning and suburbia have not been kind to this plant but it is in fact the state flower of Oregon. Indeed it is often referred to as Oregon Grape. The clusters of bright yellow flowers form bunches of dark blue-purple berries into autumn which do resemble small grapes and are said to be edible if cooked to make jams and jellies.