Michigan State University Extension Bulletin E2948 is explicitly a list of wildfire-resistant landscape plants for Michigan and includes a Michigan-native field. FireApproved publishes 221 exact GBIF owners from 226 represented source rows and holds 15 complex or non-exact rows. This dated publication scope is not a current site-suitability determination.
2. Why this plant is relevant here
State distribution
Documented in MI.
Native range
Introduced / established
USDA hardiness
Documented range 5–8.
3. Legal, ecological, and broader status
Legal-list status
Seed-list status
Reported invasive here
Broader regional context
Federal context
How to read this page
The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.
Plant hardiness evidence
These values describe the plant source. Your ZIP zone comes from the separate 2023 USDA
Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Whole-zone values stay whole-zone, and a single unresolved value
is not treated as a tolerance range. Different source boundaries stay separate: overlapping
statements are compared independently, while only ranges with no shared zone are called a conflict.
5–8 explicit range · whole zone precision · source stated
Source taxon: Berberis buxifolia · exact match.
Source location: Table 1, shrub row.
The evidence
Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself
(a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or
republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.
10 cited rows from this source; its identity, lineage and tier are stated once.
Primary study Bianchi2019: Bianchi, L. O., Oddi, F .J., Muñoz, M., & Defossé, G. E. (2019). Comparison of leaf moisture content and ignition characteristics among native species and exotic conifers in Northwestern Patagonia, Argentina. Forest Science, 65, 375-386.
Shared row context: plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying no; device epiradiator; site Bianchi2019-1; sampling summer.
Primary study Blackhall2019: Blackhall, M., & Raffaele, E. (2019). Flammability of Patagonian invaders and natives: When exotic plant species affect live fine fuel ignitability in wildland-urban interfaces. Landscape and Urban Planning, 189, 1-10.
Shared row context: plant part twigs; fuel live; predrying no; device epiradiator; site Blackhall2019-1; sampling february.
FLAMITS record 1120; Combustibility measurement; plant part wood; fuel live; predrying no; device calorimeter; site Cardoso2015-1; sampling summer. Primary study Cardoso2015: Cardoso, M. B., Ladio, A. H., Dutrus, S. M., & Lozada, M. (2015). Preference and calorific value of fuelwood species in rural populations in northwestern Patagonia. Biomass and Bioenergy, 81, 514-520.
