About Smilax L.
Smilax bona-nox, commonly called saw greenbrier, also goes by other common names including bullbriar, catbriar, dunes saw greenbrier, greenbriar, streychberry vine, and tramp's trouble. It is a prickly flowering vine that produces one-seeded fruits. This species is dioecious, meaning individual plants are either male or female. Its fruits are one-seeded drupes that are black and blue in color; fruits are harvested during summer and fall, and are edible by both humans and wildlife. The fruits are dispersed by animals after being eaten and passed through the digestive system. Small animals and songbirds are the main consumers of the fruits, though deer and black bears also eat them. This plant prefers full sun but can survive in partial shade, and actually has high overall shade tolerance; it also has medium drought tolerance. It prefers moist soil, but is tolerant of a wide range of soil types, and can grow in fine, medium, or coarse textured soils. It is most commonly found in wooded disturbed areas, and has been observed in dunes, maritime forests, wetlands, and upland environments. Smilax bona-nox is distributed across much of the eastern United States, ranging south to southern Florida, west to the edge of Texas, eastern Mexico, and also occurs in Mexico overall and in Bermuda. Its northern range extends to Maryland, Kentucky, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, Missouri, and southeastern Kansas. It is tolerant of occasional prescribed control burns and natural wildfires. It grows from underground rhizomes, which can have corm-like structures attached; even if the aboveground portion of the plant is destroyed by fire, the rhizomes allow the plant to resprout. In cultivation, S. bona-nox is easy to grow from seed. As a climbing vine, it needs a structure like lattice to climb on, and requires plenty of growing space, because it grows quickly and will shade out other plants grown near it.
