Species
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Mahonia repens (Lindl.) G.Don

Creeping barberry, Oregon Grape, Oregon barberry, Oregon grape-holly

Climate known 7 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Berberis repens commonly known as creeping mahonia, creeping grape holly, or creeping barberry, is a species of Berberis native to most of the western United States and two western provinces of Canada. It is low growing shrub that spreads by underground stems. As a species it is well adapted to fire and is a very common understory plant in western forests. An evergreen species, it provides food to deer and elk in winter and can make up a significant part of their diet. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Berberis repens”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Mahonia

Mahonia is a formerly accepted genus of approximately 70 species of shrubs or, rarely, small trees with evergreen leaves in the family Berberidaceae, native to eastern Asia, the Himalaya, North America, and Central America. They are closely related to the genus Berberis and as of 2023 the majority of botanical sources list it as a synonym for Berberis.

Text from Wikipedia, “Mahonia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Berberidaceae
Described by
(Lindl.) G.Don
Native to
Alberta, British Columbia, Colorado +15
Wild records
769 in range· 117 open

At a glance

Warmest month
26°C
Jul, mean day; nights 12 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
572mm/yr
12 wet months · peak May 63 mm (CHELSA)
Light
14–49DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 9 months (March to August and October to December in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 572 mm a year, wettest May at 63 mm, driest February at 41 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 14 to 49 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -15.1 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Berberis amplectens (Eastw.) Wheeler; Berberis aquifolium f. repens (Lindl.) B.Boivin; Berberis aquifolium subsp. repens (Lindl.) Brayshaw; Berberis aquifolium var. repens (Lindl.) Scoggan; Berberis nana Greene and 19 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 9 months (March to August and October to December in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (445 mm of 572 mm) takes 9 months, March to August and October to December. Mean temperature moves 24.6 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: September to February and April to June.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 572 mm a year, wettest May at 63 mm, driest February at 41 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

572 mm a year at the habitat, 445 mm of it March to August and October to December. Wettest month May at 63 mm, driest February at 41 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 392 mm to 862 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 14 to 49 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 14 to 49 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 8, the highest 90th-percentile month 52).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -15.1 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -15.1 °C, the absolute minimum -24.2 °C, about 154 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.2 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -10.1 °C in December (across the envelope cells -14.3 °C to -5.3 °C), warmest day 26.3 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -15.1 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 49 to 58% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 0 °C in Dec to 26 °C in Jul; mean night from -10 °C in Dec to 12 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Nov to Jan, is the three months around the coldest night. 572 mm of rain a year, most in May. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 377 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -24.2 °C and the 99th-percentile day 35.2 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost35.2° 99th-percentile day (undated)-24.2° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100mm rainDLI 14–49RH 49–58 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 377 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C1 / -3–52 / -2–76 / 2–1111 / 6–1517 / 11–2123 / 18–2626 / 22–3025 / 21–2921 / 16–2414 / 9–175 / 1–100 / -4–4
Night °C-10 / -14–-5-9 / -12–-4-5 / -9–-1-2 / -6–23 / -1–78 / 3–1212 / 7–1511 / 7–157 / 3–102 / -3–5-5 / -10–-1-10 / -14–-5
Rain mm43 / 16–7941 / 19–6750 / 30–7455 / 28–7863 / 23–9347 / 18–8647 / 20–7846 / 22–8143 / 28–6845 / 32–7145 / 22–8647 / 22–88
DLI17 / 10–2124 / 17–2833 / 26–3741 / 35–4546 / 41–5049 / 44–5248 / 46–5142 / 40–4535 / 30–3826 / 19–3018 / 11–2214 / 8–19
RH %58 / 51–6457 / 51–6255 / 50–5953 / 46–5753 / 43–5550 / 40–5449 / 42–5249 / 43–5350 / 45–5352 / 47–5656 / 49–6358 / 51–65

Each figure is the median across the 377 grid cells holding the 736 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1010:1497 (39.475, -105.125). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -24.2 °C, 1st-percentile night -15.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 35.2 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 377 distinct grid cells holding the 736 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1010:1497 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 39.50_-105.000, lapse-corrected -156 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1939 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeAlberta, British Columbia, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Minnesota, North Dakota, Nebraska, South Dakota, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Texas· introduced: Germany, Hungary
Kew's description“subshrub” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker39.925, -105.294 · in the densest population, 644 records (84% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 769 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 117 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 165 km away. 33 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 769 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Mahonia repensMahonia repensMahonia repensMahonia repensMahonia repensMahonia repens

Photographs: Jared Lincenberg, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; andrew2285, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF; Archer Silverman, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; Cristhian Mace, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (3).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Mahonia repens, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Photosynthesis and Photoprotection in Overwintering Plants
William W. Adams, Barbara Demmig‐Adams, Todd N. Rosenstiel, Angela Brightwell (2002) · Plant Biology
Seasonal differences in xanthophyll cycle characteristics and antioxidants in Mahonia repens growing in different light environments
Barry A. Logan, Stephen C. Grace, William W. Adams, Barbara Demmig‐Adams (1998) · Oecologia
Seasonal differences in foliar content of chlorogenic acid, a phenylpropanoid antioxidant, in Mahonia repens
Stephen C. Grace, Barry A. Logan, William W. Adams (1998) · Plant Cell & Environment
Characterization of Plant Epidermal Lens Effects by a Surface Replica Technique
Greg Martin, DAVID A. MYRES, Thomas C. Vogelmann (1991) · Journal of Experimental Botany
Population Diversity of Puccinia graminis is Sustained Through Sexual Cycle on Alternate Hosts
Yue Jin, Matt Rouse, Jim Groth (2014) · Journal of Integrative Agriculture
Are American Black Bears (Ursus americanus) Legitimate Seed Dispersers for Fleshy-fruited Shrubs?
Janene Auger, Susan E. Meyer, Hal L. Black (2002) · The American Midland Naturalist
Alkaloids of Mahonia repens With A Brief Review of Previous Work in the Genus Mahonia
Terry R. Suess, Frank R. Stermitz (1981) · Journal of Natural Products

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Mahonia 5 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search API
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 1 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.