 This species has long been known by the name "Mahonia lomariifolia", published by Takeda in 1917.Under that name, it was considered to occur only in mainland China, while on Taiwan, a second species was found, known as "M. oiwakensis".Modern taxonomic sources unite the two as a single species, but as the latter name was published a year earlier by Hayata, it has priority and is thus the accepted name.