Laurelleaf Greenbrier

Description:

Smilax laurifolia is a species of flowering plant in the greenbrier family known by the common names laurelleaf greenbrier, bamboo vine, and blaspheme vine. 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. The plant grows from a huge woody, tuberous rhizome. The sprouts may grow up to 7 centimeters per day. 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. 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. The berries mature in the second growing season after they first appear.

Habitat:

It is native to the southeastern United States, where it occurs along the Gulf and Atlantic coastal plains inland to Arkansas and Tennessee. It also occurs in Cuba and the Bahamas. 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. This one was photographed about 15 feet up a tree at Phinizy Swamp Nature Park near Augusta (Richmond County), GA.

Notes:

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.