Greenbrier (Smilax)
Stem Herbaceous.
| ............... | lateral lf margins straight or concave | lateral lf-margins convex |
| tep 1.5-2.5mm | (1.pseudochina) moist or wet, low places on the coastal plain; NJ & DE to GA | ..... |
| tep 3.5-5mm | ..... | carrion flower (2.herbacea) moist soil of open woods, roadsides & thickets; 3 varieties; |
Stem Woody.
| ..... | green beneath | strongly whitened beneath | lvs evergreen |
| 4) peduncles notably longer than the petiole of the subtending lf | ..... | sawbrier (4.glauca) thorns; upland woods, roadsides & thikcets; CN to FL | ..... |
| lf margin thin, minutely serrulate | bristly g.b. (5.hispida) thorns often blackish, bristly, very numerous near plant base; moist woods 7 thickets; CN & NY to n FL | ..... | ..... |
| 4) peduncles up to about as long as (or only slightly longer than) the petiole | ..... | ..... | ..... |
| 7) lvs evergreen | ..... | ..... | laurel-leaved g.b. (7.laurifolia) wet woods & margins of swamps: NJ & FL |
| 7) lvs deciduous | ..... | ..... | ..... |
| 8) fr black; widespread | common g.b. (8.rotundifolia) thorns stout, ridid & green; open woods, thickets & roadsides; NS to FL | ..... | ..... |
| 8) fr red; southern | Walter's g.b. (9.walteri) lvs shining, ovate ortriangular-ovate; swamps & wet woods; MD to n FL to LA | ..... | ..... |
Kalm. 5/16/1749. Smilax laurifolia was superabundant in all the swamps near this place. Its leaves were now beginning to come out, for it sheds them all every winter. It climbs up along trees and shrubs, and runs across from one tree or bush to another. By this means it shuts up the passage between the trees, fastening itself everywhere with its cirrhi or tendrils, so that it is with the utmost difficulty one can force a passage in the swamps and woods where it is plentiful. The stalk towards the bottom is full of long spines, which are as strong as those of a rosebush. They catch hold of clothes and tear them. This troublesome plant may sometimes bring you into imminent danger when botanizing or going into the woods, for, not to mention that one's clothes must be absolutely ruined by its numberless spines, it occasions a deep shade in the woods, by crossing from tree to tree so often. This forces you to stoop, and even to creep on all fours through the little passages which are left close to the ground, and then you cannot be careful enough to prevent a snake (of which there are large numbers here) from darting into your face. The stalk of the plant is the same color as that of young rose bushes. It is green and smooth between the spines, so that a stranger might take it to be a kind of thorn in winter, when the leaves are gone. It is therefore called 'tree thorn' by the Swedes.
Kalm. Smilax herbacea. The flower of this plant has the most disagreeable odor in the world, for it smells like a dead snake, and when you have once smelled of it the terrible odor will never leave your nose (6/1/1750). P. 684.