Say “smilax” on a walk in the woods, and folks turn around or take another path. The genus has a bad rap. Not all species of smilax are feisty, ferocious, and fanged especially from the perspective of wildlife.
Catbrier, common greenbrier, bristly greenbrier, bullbrier, sticker vine, and kidripper are all common names for Smilax rotundifolia, a native North American vine found across the eastern United States. Light green round leaves 2-5 inches long with parallel veins and thorns along the stems distinguishes the vine from other perennial vines. Greenbrier, a tendril climber reaching 10-20 feet, forms impenetrable thorny thickets throughout forests, farmland, and backyards.
While the prickly vine annoys humans, the semievergreen greenbrier is valuable for wildlife.
Small fruits called berries follow inconspicuous green flowers of spring. The berries are a source of food for birds like cardinals and white-throated sparrows and small mammals like raccoons, squirrels, and opossum in winter. Whitetailed deer and eastern cottontails browse on the foliage. The dense cover offers a protection for wildlife.
Smilax smallii in an Eiffel tower vase for a wedding.
A thornless evergreen smilax, commonly called lanceleaf greenbrier, southern greenbrier, bamboo vine or Jackson vine, is Smilax smallii aka Smilax lanceolata. The glossy dark green leaf is the shape of a lance head. Tiny yellow flowers appear in spring. Birds and mammals eat the dark red berries. The leaves are host to the olive hairstreak butterfly.
The fast-growing vine can be trained on trellises, arbors, and fences. It is easily maintained by cutting back every three years to avoid a dense thicket.
Smilax smallii, the gentle smilax, is the ornamental vine you see used in floral arrangements for debutante balls and weddings. It is the vine of Christmas in the south. Smilax cascades from vases, twines up candlesticks, and drapes across altars in churches. As you tour Midland mansions like Kensington in Eastover and Historic Columbia Foundation’s house and garden tours in downtown Columbia, look for Smilax smallii swags on porches, garlands across mantels and around windows and doorways, and woven into centerpieces and wreaths.
Familiar backyard Smilax rotundifolia
The vine received the name Jackson vine during the Civil War when it was used to decorate tables and doorways when Stonewall Jackson visited towns in Alabama.
Steve Bender, senior garden writer for Southern Living magazine, notes that the vine grows from an enormous underground potatolike tuber requiring a pet boar to uproot. For that reason, few nurseries sell the root. However, Woodlander’s native plant nursery in Aiken sells the vine. The plant is propagated by seeds also.
Whether you are bitten by smilax or smitten by smilax, the season of smilax is here.
The dense foliage of smilax makes secure cover for wildlife.
Smilax smallii climbing pines in Georgia.
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