Smilax laurifolia

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Smilax laurifolia
Smilax laurifolia (2020).jpg
Status TNC G5.svg
Secure  (NatureServe)
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Order: Liliales
Family: Smilacaceae
Genus: Smilax
Species:
S. laurifolia
Binomial name
Smilax laurifolia
L. 1753 not Roxb. 1832
Synonyms [1]
  • Parillax laurifolia(L.) Raf.
  • Smilax lanceolataL.
  • Smilax virginianaMill.
  • Smilax albaPursh

Smilax laurifolia is a species of flowering plant in the greenbrier family known by the common names laurel greenbrier, [2] laurelleaf greenbrier, bamboo vine, and blaspheme vine. It is native to the southeastern United States, where it occurs along the Gulf and Atlantic coastal plains from Texas to New Jersey, the range extending inland to Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. [3] It also occurs in Cuba and the Bahamas. [1] [4] [5] [6] [7]

This plant is a monocotyledonous woody vine that forms dense colonial thickets and climbs over other vegetation. The stems reach five meters or more in length. They are "viciously armed" with prickles that may be over a centimeter long. [5] The plant grows from a huge woody, tuberous rhizome. The sprouts may grow up to 7 centimeters per day. [4] The leathery evergreen leaves are linear, lance-shaped, or oval and reach 13 centimeters long by 6 wide. The petioles twist to bear the leaves in an erect position. [4] The inflorescence is an umbel of up to 25 flowers borne in the leaf axils. Each flower has whitish or yellowish tepals each about half a centimeter long. The fruit is a shiny, waxy black berry 5 to 8 millimeters long. [5] The berries mature in the second growing season after they first appear. [4]

This plant grows in bogs, swamps, and marshy areas. It is a dominant plant in pocosins. The soils are wet to saturated and the sites are often flooded. It is common in the Everglades and it is "characteristic" of the Okefenokee Swamp understory flora. It grows beneath cypress, swamp blackgum (N. sylvatica), white bay (Magnolia virginiana), loblolly bay (Gordonia lasianthus), sweet bay (Persea borbonia), red maple (Acer rubrum), cassena (Ilex cassine), titi (Cyrilla racemiflora), and southern white cedar (Chamaecyparis thyoides). In the understory it is associated with hurrahbush (Lyonia lucida), leucothoe (Leucothoe racemosa), sweetspire (Itea virginica), poor-man's soap (Clethra alnifolia), coral greenbrier (S. walteri), and honeycup (Zenobia pulverulenta). [4]

This plant competes with and inhibits tree seedlings such as those of southern white cedar. In sunny sites it grows better and can form dense thickets. When burned or damaged it resprouts vigorously from its large rhizome. [4] This rapidly climbing vine is a silvicultural pest. [4]

This plant provides habitat for many types of animals, such as white-tailed deer, bobcat, gray squirrel, Eastern diamondback rattlesnake, American alligator, pine barrens tree frog, and the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker. It grows alongside a variety of rare such as white wickey (Kalmia cuneata), arrowleaf shieldwort (Peltandra sagittaefolia), spring-flowering goldenrod (Solidago verna), and rough-leaf loostrife (Lysimachia asperulaefolia). [4]

Native American groups used this plant medicinally. For example, the Cherokee used it for sores and burns. The tuberous rhizome was also a food source; the Choctaw made it into fried cakes and bread. [8] [9]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Smilacaceae</span> Family of flowering plants

Smilacaceae, the greenbriers, is a family of flowering plants. While they were often assigned to a more broadly defined family Liliaceae, most recent botanists have accepted the two as distinct families, diverging around 55 million years ago during the Early Paleogene. One characteristic that distinguishes Smilacaceae from most of the other members of the Liliaceae-like Liliales is that it has true vessels in its conducting tissue. Another is that the veins of the leaves, between major veins, are reticulate (net-shaped), rather than parallel as in most monocots.

<i>Smilax</i> Genus of flowering plants in the family Smilacaceae

Smilax is a genus of about 300–350 species, found in the tropics and subtropics worldwide. In China for example about 80 are found, while there are 20 in North America north of Mexico. They are climbing flowering plants, many of which are woody and/or thorny, in the monocotyledon family Smilacaceae, native throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Common names include catbriers, greenbriers, prickly-ivys and smilaxes. Sarsaparilla is a name used specifically for the Neotropical S. ornata as well as a catch-all term in particular for American species. Occasionally, the non-woody species such as the smooth herbaceous greenbrier are separated as genus Nemexia; they are commonly known by the rather ambiguous name carrion flowers.

<i>Spiraea douglasii</i> Species of flowering plant

Spiraea douglasii is a species of flowering plant in the rose family native to western North America. Common names include hardhack,hardhack steeplebush, Douglas' spirea, douglasspirea, steeplebush, and rose spirea.

<i>Menispermum canadense</i> Species of plant

Menispermum canadense, the Canadian moonseed, common moonseed, or yellow parilla, is a flowering plant in the family Menispermaceae, native to eastern North America, from southern Canada south to northern Florida, and from the Atlantic coast west to Manitoba and Texas. It occurs in thickets, moist woods, and the banks of streams.

<i>Smilax rotundifolia</i> Species of plant

Smilax rotundifolia, also known as roundleaf greenbrier or common greenbrier, is a woody vine native to the southeastern and eastern United States and eastern Canada. It is a common and conspicuous part of the natural forest ecosystems in much of its native range. The leaves are glossy green, petioled, alternate, and circular to heart-shaped. They are generally 5–13 cm long. Common greenbrier climbs other plants using green tendrils growing out of the petioles.

<i>Smilax herbacea</i> Species of flowering plant

Smilax herbacea, the smooth carrionflower or smooth herbaceous greenbrier, is a plant in the catbriar family. It is native to eastern Canada and the eastern United States. Its preferred natural habitat is rich forests, and riparian thicket and meadows.

<i>Smilax glauca</i> Species of flowering plant

Smilax glauca, the cat greenbriar or catbriar is a woody vine in the family Smilacaceae. It is native to central and eastern portions of the United States as well as Mexico, where it is a common and conspicuous part of the forest vegetation.

<i>Vaccinium membranaceum</i> Species of plant

Vaccinium membranaceum is a species within the group of Vaccinium commonly referred to as huckleberry. This particular species is known by the common names thinleaf huckleberry, tall huckleberry, big huckleberry, mountain huckleberry, square-twig blueberry, and (ambiguously) as "black huckleberry".

<i>Gaylussacia dumosa</i> Berry and plant

Gaylussacia dumosa is a species of flowering plant in the heath family known by the common names dwarf huckleberry, bush huckleberry, and gopherberry. It is native to eastern North America from Newfoundland to Louisiana and Florida. It occurs along the coastal plain and in the mountains.

<i>Gaylussacia frondosa</i> Berry and plant

Gaylussacia frondosa is a species of flowering plant in the heath family known by the common names dangleberry and blue huckleberry. It is native to the eastern United States, where it occurs from New Hampshire to South Carolina.

<i>Eubotrys racemosa</i> Species of flowering plant

Eubotrys racemosa is a species of flowering plant in the heath family known by the common names fetterbush, swamp doghobble, and swamp sweetbells.

<i>Lyonia ligustrina</i> Species of tree

Lyonia ligustrina is a species of flowering plant in the family Ericaceae known by the common names maleberry and he-huckleberry. It is native to the eastern United States from Maine to Florida and west to Texas and Oklahoma.

<i>Lyonia lucida</i> Species of flowering plant

Lyonia lucida is a species of flowering plant in the family Ericaceae known by the common names fetterbush lyonia, hurrahbush, and staggerbush. Other plants may also be called fetterbush. This broadleaved evergreen plant grows on the coastal plain of the southeastern United States from Virginia to Florida to Louisiana. It also occurs in Cuba.

<i>Rubus canadensis</i> Species of flowering plant

Rubus canadensis is a North American species of flowering plant in the rose family known by the common names smooth blackberry, Canadian blackberry, thornless blackberry and smooth highbush blackberry. It is native to central and eastern Canada and the eastern United States.

<i>Vaccinium pallidum</i> Berry and plant

Vaccinium pallidum is a species of flowering plant in the heath family known by the common names hillside blueberry, Blue Ridge blueberry, late lowbush blueberry, and early lowbush blueberry. It is native to central Canada (Ontario) and the central and eastern United States plus the Ozarks of Missouri, Arkansas, southeastern Kansas and eastern Oklahoma.

<i>Smilax bona-nox</i> Species of flowering plant

Smilax bona-nox, the saw greenbrier, is a species of plant in the family Smilacaceae. It is native to the Southern United States, and eastern Mexico.

<i>Vaccinium oxycoccos</i> Berry and plant

Vaccinium oxycoccos is a species of flowering plant in the heath family. It is known as small cranberry, marshberry, bog cranberry, swamp cranberry, or, particularly in Britain, just cranberry. It is widespread throughout the cool temperate northern hemisphere, including northern Europe, northern Asia and northern North America.

<i>Smilax auriculata</i> Species of plant

Smilax auriculata is a North American plant species native to the Bahamas, the Turks & Caicos Islands, and the southeastern United States. Common names include earleaf greenbrier and wild-bamboo, despite the fact that it is not closely related to bamboo. It is reported from Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. It grows on coastal sand dunes and in sun-lit locations in sandy woodlands at elevations of less than 100 m.

Smilax havanensis is a plant species native to Cuba, the Cayman Islands, Bahamas, Turks & Caicos, and southern Florida.

<i>Smilax pseudochina</i> Species of herb

Smilax pseudochina is a perennial herb in the greenbriar family. It is commonly called bamboo vine or false chinaroot. Its range extends up the Atlantic Coast of the United States, from Long Island in New York State south to Georgia.

References

  1. 1 2 Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
  2. ↑ USDA, NRCS (n.d.). "Smilax laurifolia". The PLANTS Database (plants.usda.gov). Greensboro, North Carolina: National Plant Data Team. Retrieved 16 November 2015.
  3. ↑ Biota of North America Program 2014 county distribution map
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Van Deelen, Timothy R. 1991. Smilax laurifolia. In: Fire Effects Information System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory.
  5. 1 2 3 Smilax laurifolia. Flora of North America.
  6. ↑ Leon, H. (1946). Flora de Cuba 1: 1-441. Cultural S. A., La Habana.
  7. ↑ Correll, D.S. & Correll, H.B. (1982). Flora of the Bahama Archipelago: 1-1692. J.Cramer, Vaduz.
  8. ↑ "Smilax laurifolia". Native American Ethnobotany DB. University of Michigan Ethnobotany. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
  9. ↑ Freedman, Robert Louis (1976). "Native North American Food Preparation Techniques". Boletín Bibliográfico de Antropología Americana (1973-1979). Pan American Institute of Geography and History. 38 (47): 127. JSTOR   43996285., s.v. Root Fritters (ahe) Choctaw
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