Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses - Bristly greenbrier

BRISTLY GREENBRIER

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Smilax tamnoides L.

[=Smilax hispida Muhl. ex Torr.]

Geary County, Kansas

Height: Vines; stems perennial, climbing, branch

Family: Smilacaceae - Catbrier Family

Flowering Period: May

Trunks:

Vines; stems perennial, climbing, branching, glabrous, with prickles dense on lower portion of stem, gradually decreasing and often without prickles above; prickles nearly black, unequal, 1/8 to 2/5+ inch long, straight, slender; prickle bases barely enlarged.

Twigs:

Green with minute whitish dots; young prickles yellowish, older prickles black. Buds green, conical, pointed, hidden by old leaf base.

Leaves:

Alternate, simple, deciduous; petiole 2/5 to 1 inch, glabrous, often twisted; stipules sometimes prolonged into 2 tendrils; blade ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 2 to 5.5 inches long, 1.6 to 4 inches wide, 5 main veins, base heart-shaped to rounded, margins entire apically, minutely toothed basally, upper surface dark green, glabrous, shiny, lower surface paler, glabrous, tip pointed.

Flowers:

Dioecious; umbels, many, axillary to leaves, 10-25-flowered; peduncle often drooping, 3/5 to 2.6 inch; perianth green to bronze; tepals 6, linear, 1/6 to 1/5 inch, recurved, tip finely pubescent; staminate: stamens 6; anthers yellow; pistillate: staminodes present; pistil 1, ovary superior, 2-locular.

Fruit:

In October; drooping spherical clusters, open or compact; fruits berries, blue-black, spherical, 1/4 to 2/5 inch diameter, smooth; seeds 1-2, dark red, spherical or flattened on 1 side, ca. 1/5 inch, smooth. glossy.

Habitat:

Woods, thickets, stream banks

Distribution:

East 2/3 of Kansas

Origin:

Native

Bristly greenbrier leaf