Smilax bona-nox
Family: Smilacaceae
Description: Prickly evergreen vine with tendrils, triangular or oval, opposite leaves 4-9 cm wide. Flowers in axillary umbels, unisexual with male and female on separate plants. Perianth 5-6 mm long, green. Fruits black.
Field Identification: Dense, prickly vine often with a woody base. Is a major cause for tripping in areas where it grows. Prickles are cat-like thorns. Stems with 4 ridges. This plant resembles variable leaf snailseed, Cocculus diversifolius. The prickly lower stems and the flowers in umbrella-like clusters distinguish cat brier. It is a dioecious (male and female plants). Simple, alternate, ovate to heart-shaped, up to 4.5″ long, with tendril-bearing petioles; firm texture, sometimes mottled; evergreen to semi-evergreen.
Plant Trivia:
Occurrence: Frequent in coastal woods, river and creek bottoms, and deep ravines. Native from Florida to Texas and eastern Mexico, north to Maryland, Kentucky, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, Missouri, and southeastern Kansas.
Bloom Period: Apr-May
Plant Use: Fruit is eaten by much wildlife. Fruits eaten by wood ducks, ruffed grouse, wild turkeys, fish crows, black bears, opossums, raccoons, squirrels, and songbirds; foliage browsed by white-tailed deer. Native Americans used leaves as cigarette wrappers; roots for urinary treatments; seeds for bread.
Dichotomous Key to the Genus Smilax:
- Leaf margins distinctly thickened………..….S. bona-nox
Leaf margin not thickened…………………..…S. tamnoides
stxflora 