Smilax bona-nox L.

Saw Greenbrier; Fringed Greenbrier; Bullbrier

Vine

Perennial

Vascular

Saw Greenbrier is a perennial native deciduous or evergreen vine in the Greenbrier family (Smilacaceae). It is found throughout Alabama. Saw Greenbrier grows on fence rows, on roadsides, in dry upland pine or hardwood forests, and on floodplains. It is a perennial from elongate, woody, tuberous rhizomes or stolons. Saw Greenbrier is a woody vine that is semi-erect to twining and climbing by tendrils on shrubs and trees. The stems are often zigzag towards the tips and can be up to 20 feet in length. Stems are greenish in color, branched, rounded to 4-angled, glabrous or pubescent with stellate hairs, and with stout, flattened, broad-based prickles that are often black-tipped. Leaves are alternate, petiolate, ovate to lance-ovate or hastate to pandurate in outline, thick in texture, glabrous or minutely pubescent on the lower surface, with entire to spinose-ciliate margins. The leaves have 3-5 prominent veins and a thick, raised vein parallel to the margin. Leaves are uniformly green or mottled and appearing variegated. Flowers are produced in axillary umbels of 10-15 greenish-yellow flowers. The fruit is a black berry. This is probably the most common species in the genus in Alabama, and occurs in a wide variety of habitats.—A. Diamond

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Native FAC (NWPL)

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