An evergreen species, it provides food to deer and elk in winter and can make up a significant part of their diet.

The berries are eaten by birds and small mammals, aiding it in spreading to recently disturbed areas.

[3] Although it is evergreen, in the fall and winter leaves will partially or completely turn bronze or red in color when exposed to sun.

[4] Local condition determine the exact timing of the bloom which may be as early as February or as late as June.

Each flower has a single pistil, but six pollen producing stamens which emerge when the petals or sepals are touched.

[10] Berberis repens has quite striking dark purple-black berries with a matte blue blush that contain a single seed and resemble a grape.

[2] The correct classification of this and the other species into a separate Mahonia genus or with the rest of the barberries in Berberis has been controversial since that time.

[11] In 1997 a widely cited paper by Joseph Edward Laferrière summarized the arguments in favor of Berberis as the correct classification.

[5] As a long lived plant with a protected root system and seeds that are presumed to persist in the soil it recovers quickly from low intensity fires.

[26] The above ground stems and parts of the plant in the forest humus are vulnerable to fire damage, but resprouts from undamaged rhizomes in the mineral soil.

[5] It decreases over time when the forest canopy is too dense, though it can tolerate significant shade and increases as other plants are negatively impacted by acidification of the soil by conifer trees.

Elk and white tailed deer both consume creeping grapeholly in the winter and to a greater extent when the weather is mild and there is less snow covering the plants.

The Hopi, Paiute, Navajo, Shoshoni, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Mendocino, and other tribes also used the plant for medicinal, food, and ceremonial needs.

[34] Native Americans also used the wood of the stem to produce yellow dyes[19] to stain woven baskets.

[19] It is a low water ground cover and is used in gardens under oaks to reduce or eliminate irrigation that can threaten mature trees.

[26] Plants grown from seed are widely available from commercial and non-profit sources, but no cultivars have been developed.

With the shortest stem sizes growing with minimal water and larger ones towards the maximum of its moisture tolerance.