Dripping Wet & Beautiful Decaying Oregon-grape Leaf (4 inset pictures!) :D

4 pictures above in notes!

If you're anything like me, you probably thought that all plants with spikey leaves like this are Holly! It just never occurred to me that totally unrelated plants could develop the same sort of defense mechanism, but this is just one example of identical leaves on totally different plants.

You may also wonder how Oregon Grape got its name, since it's obviously not a true grape, which grows on vines. This plant got its name because after its beautiful flowers are pollinated, the fruit it produces are blue berries which look just like grapes! I don't have any of my own pictures to show you because the deer and wildlife wolf them down even before they ripen, but I did find one picture from another person on ipernity! (Garry Kinney's Oregon Grapes)

If you would like to know more about Oregon Grape, Wiki has a fine page here: Wikipedia: Oregon Grape