1.09.2011

Smilax

This cold, cold winter has me looking for any spots of color I can find. Luckily, we have a nice variety of smilax vines in the work swamp. There are pictures of berries from three different species of smilax here. The green leaves belong to a species with the common name laurel-leaved greenbrier.

 
Posted by Picasa


 

 

 

 
Posted by Picasa

5 comments:

Patrice said...

I love finding survivors...LOL!

Wayne said...

Very nice, Swampy. I've been enjoying our smilax too. Bona-nox and smallii, which is maturing its berries right now and has glossy green leaves. Bona-nox doesn't like the cold so much.

I like the laurel leaved - we don't have it right here. What are the other two species?

swamp4me said...

Patrice,
Me, too!

Wayne,
We have six identified species so far. The ones pictured along with the S. laurifolia are S. rotundifolia and S. walteri (the red berries).

Marvin said...

Color during the winter is always a welcome find.

I've tried and failed to sort out all our different Smilax. We do have a very few with red berries. Maybe they are S. walteri.

Marvin said...

A little more research says: S. walteri is not at all likely. We're on a rocky ridge. S. walteri is only documented in a few southern Arkansas counties. Oh, well.