Berberis chingii

This Chinese species is a small to medium sized thorny, erect, evergreen shrub, much branched from the base with quite elegant and narrow glossy green leaves up to 8cm long that are white to very pale silvery grey-green underneath. It has whorls of impressive long sharp spines underneath each set of leaves and can grow 100 - 200cm tall. The flowers are in dangling clusters of up to 14 pretty little yellow blooms and followed by little white fruits in autumn.