Damp pine-barrens, bogs and savannahs in s.e. Olcla. (McCurtain Co.) and e. 

 Tex., May-July; from Fla. to Tex. and Okla., n. to s.e. Va. and Md. 



13. Smilax L. Green-brier. Cat-brier 



Shrubby or herbaceous dioecious plants usually climbing or supported by a 

 pair of tendrils on the petiole of the broad-ribbed and netted-veined simple leaves; 

 flowers unisexual, the staminate often the larger, in umbels in axillary peduncles, 

 small, greenish, yellowish or bronze, regular; perianth segments distinct, similar, 

 deciduous; stamens in the staminate flower 6; filaments slender or flattened, in- 

 serted on the very base of the perianth; the introrse anthers linear or oblong, 

 fixed by the base, apparently 1-celled; ovary of fertile flowers 3-celled (1-cell 

 with single stigma in S. laurifolia): stigmas thick and spreading, almost sessile; 

 ovules 1 or 2 in each cell, pendulous, orthotropous; fruit a small berry. 



About 350 species, mostly tropical with few in the Temperate Zone in North 

 America and eastern Asia. Segregated by some authors as a separate family, 

 Smilacaceae. 



The fruits of green-briers provide winter food for many species of songbirds, 

 game birds and wild animals, and the herbage is browsed by deer and is occa- 

 sionally eaten by wildfowl. 



1. Leaves evergreen, thick-coriaceous, oblong to oblong-linear or oblong-lanceo- 

 late to rarely broadly linear, on the underside the midvein in its 

 lower third more prominent than the laterals, a lateral vein closely 

 and evenly submarginal; stigma 1; berries black, 1 -seeded, ripening 

 late in the second season after flowering in the previous summer or 

 fall 1. S. laurifolia. 



1. Leaves deciduous, firm-membranous, ovate to triangular-lanceolate, the veins 



not as above; stigmas 2 or 3; berries black or red, 1- to 3-seeded, 

 ripening the same year after flowering in the spring (2) 



2(1). Berries black or bluish-black (when glaucous); principal stems and main 

 branches with stout flattened prickles; leaf blades usually ovate, 

 abruptly acute to short-acuminate at apex 2. S. rotundi folia. 



2. Berries bright-red; stems prickly mostly at the base, the prickles usually sub- 



ulate; leaf blades usually ovate-lanceolate to narrowly triangular- 

 lanceolate, rounded to obtuse and mucronate at apex 



3. 5. Walteri. 



1. Smilax laurifolia L. Bamboo-vine, blaspheme-vine. Fig. 339. 



Evergreen high-climbing rampant vine, often forming impenetrable entangle- 

 ments, with knotty-thickened subligneous rhizomes and with strong terete stems 

 armed (especially below and on vigorous sprouts) with rigid terete prickles; 

 tendrils intermittent, few or wanting on flowering branchlets; leaves heavily coria- 

 ceous, short-petioled, with the thick midrib much more prominent beneath than 

 the 2 to 4 lateral ones, oblong to oblong-linear or -lanceolate, usually coarsely 

 mucronate, provided with a prominent and evenly submarginal vein, 6-20 cm. 

 long and 1-7.5 cm. broad; umbels sort-stalked, often crowded and subpaniculate 

 along the branchlets; stigma solitary, ovary 1-celled; berries becoming black, about 

 8 mm. in diameter. 



Swamps, seepage slopes and low ground in s.e. Okla. (McCurtain Co.) and 

 e. Tex., flowering in late summer and autumn of 1st season, lasting over winter; 

 from Fla. to Tex., n. to N.J. and Tenn.; also W.L 



The leaf margin is often inrolled so that there appear to be 2 closely parallel 

 veins at the margin. 



2. Smilax rotundifolia L. Common green-brier, horse-brier. 



Tough woody high-climbing vine, from long slender rhizomes, with strong 



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