keys to the vascular plants of east texas - Botanical Research ...

1120 SMILACACEAE/SMILAX
4. Leaf blades � the same green color above and below; peduncles longer or shorter
than petioles of subtending leaves.
5. EITHER stems with numerous, weak, bristle-like, dark prickles OR leaf blades with a
thickened, cartilaginous, marginal band (as if with a rib (= vein) forming the edge—
use magnification) and usually with indented sides; peduncles 1.5 or more times as
long as petioles of the subtending leaves, to ca. 65 mm long; leaf bases cordate to
truncate or rounded; fruits usually 1-seeded, black.
6. Stems with relatively weak, somewhat bristle-like, usually dark prickles; leaf margins
thin, without a cartilaginous band, obscurely minutely serrulate in basal half;
leaves drying and fading to an ashy-green color; leaf blades of flowering branches
ovate or rounded in outline, the sides � curved outward, almost never indented,
the base rounded to cordate __________________________________________ S. tamnoides
6. Stems with rigid, broad-based, pale or only dark-tipped prickles; leaf margins often
with a thickened cartilaginous band or rib (use magnification), entire or often
with widely spaced, � delicate prickles on the margins; leaves drying and fading
to a tan color; leaf blades of flowering branches triangular to reniform (= kidneyshaped),
the sides often indented to nearly straight or curved outward,
the base nearly truncate to widely cordate ________________________________ S. bona-nox
5. Stems without numerous, weak, bristle-like, dark prickles AND leaf blades marginally
thin, without a thickened cartilaginous band, and without indented sides; peduncles
usually less than 1.5 times as long as petioles of the subtending leaves, usually to
only 15 mm long (but sometimes longer); leaf bases cuneate (= wedge-shaped-triangular)
or cordate to truncate or rounded; fruits 1–3-seeded, black to bluish black to
various shades of red or orange.
7. Leaves evergreen, the mature leaf blades thin-coriaceous, lanceolate to ellipticlanceolate,
usually 2 times longer than wide or longer, basally cuneate; stems
terete; fruits dull red to reddish brown _______________________________________ S. smallii
7. Leaves � deciduous, the mature leaf blades firm-membranous, ovate-lanceolate to
ovate or nearly rounded, sometimes � 1.5 times longer than wide, basally rounded
to cordate; stems terete to 4-angled; fruits bright red to orange or bluish black to black.
8. Fruits black or bluish black (when glaucous); principal stems and main branches
with stout flattened prickles; leaf blades usually ovate to nearly rounded; plants
of moist to dry habitats ____________________________________________ S. rotundifolia
8. Fruits bright red to orange; stems prickly mostly at base, the prickles mostly �
awl-shaped; leaf blades usually ovate-lanceolate to ovate-oblong; plants of wet
habitats _____________________________________________________________ S. walteri
Smilax bona-nox L., (good night, from the Spanish: buenas noches, for the West Indian species
recorded by Clusius), SAW GREENBRIER, FIDDLE-LEAF GREENBRIER, STRETCHBERRY, GUMBERRY,
CHINABRIER, BULLBRIER, CATBRIER, ZARZAPARRILLA, TRAMP’S-TROUBLE, FRINGED GREENBRIER. Plant
forming low tangles or climbing on shrubs or trees; � prickly, long, slender rhizomes and
prickly tuberous rhizomes present, the prickles with dark resinous tips (this is the only East TX
species with prickly tuberous rhizomes); stems with rigid, broad-based, pale or only darktipped
prickles 4–9 mm long on both the internodes and the nodes, also often with patches of
whitish, granular-warty or scruffy material (under magnification appearing as masses of short,
� branched hairs); leaves tardily deciduous, some often surviving the winter; leaf blades to ca.
10 cm long, varying greatly in size and shape, those of flowering branches triangular to reniform
(= kidney-shaped), with the sides often indented to nearly straight or curved outward, often
blotched or mottled with some areas paler or whitish, the base nearly truncate to widely
cordate, often with � delicate prickles on the margins, main veins, and petioles, the margins
with a thickened cartilaginous band (as if with a rib (= vein) forming the edge); peduncles to