more info: the vine was first noticed 10 years ago, 5 years after purchasing the house. it does not come up every year. it's had little to no care. last fall the city hacked everything back after a summer of neglect. all clippings were tossed into the cypress (mulch & frost protection maybe). the soil pictured above is what it's been growing in. it has shade at the bottom and climbs to the sun. it is sheltered from direct sun & wind. i believe it is on the south side of the house. all around the base of the cypress, flat shoots pop up where sun barely dapples through. maybe they send roots back into the soil as they grow along the ground, until they reach the edge of the cypress, then go up to the sun. i exaggerated in saying it's climbed 40', as i was having a double rainbow moment. but it's definitely about 20'. :D thanks so much for the help. ~spazplant

Jack in the pulpits are common in this area, so I'm guessing that what it is. Thanks!

looks like a gooseberry?

Fata: thanks for your comments! these berries are not on the green thorned stalks... Those are just background plants... These red berries are hanging from the brown branches. For example, all the red berries at center-left of the photo are hanging below that dark brown branch running right to left 2 inches above them. These berries are clustered in groups of 3-5 and hang from this stem with thin, well, let's say they look like little cherries, each one has the thin stalk thing that attaches/hangs it from the branch. after further reading, it seems like it's near impossible to buy a native berberis. And it's nearly gone from the wild. I looked it up in Dirr and it seems like the native one doesn't even get listed. Some online writings allude to the existence of some extant patches somewhere in the blue ridge mountains but no detailed location info is available, even if one wanted to try to collect seeds and start some at home. what other native bushes (that can grow in shade) have colorful winter berries like that? (Other than holly and etc... Would like something perhaps uncommon) thank you