Smilax glaucaWalter

cat greenbrier

WFO wfo-0000742668 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Smilax glauca, photographed by Jeff Clark
fig. a Jeff Clark, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-12 / obs. 205618511
Smilax glauca, photographed by Joseph McPhail
fig. b Joseph McPhail, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 205347974
Smilax glauca, photographed by Joseph Aubert
fig. c Joseph Aubert, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 200392805
Smilax glauca, photographed by Steve Young
fig. d Steve Young, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 200280062
Smilax glauca, photographed by Eli Dickerson
fig. e Eli Dickerson, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 193232061
Smilax glauca, photographed by Morgan Freese
fig. f Morgan Freese, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 192651578
Smilax glauca, photographed by Brian Finzel
fig. g Brian Finzel, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 185931721
Smilax glauca, photographed by Lindsey G.
fig. h Lindsey G., CC BY 4.0 / obs. 186289573

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 30 botanical countries

Regions where Smilax glauca is native: Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia AlabamaArkansasConnecticutFloridaGeorgiaIllinoisIndianaKentuckyLouisianaMarylandMexico CentralMexico GulfMexico NortheastMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestMississippiMissouriNew JerseyNew YorkNorth CarolinaOhioOklahomaPennsylvaniaSouth CarolinaTennesseeTexasVirginiaWest Virginia DelawareDistrict of Columbia
Native distribution of Smilax glauca, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Alabama ALA NORTHERN AMERICA
Arkansas ARK
Connecticut CNT
Delaware DEL
District of Columbia WDC
Florida FLA
Georgia GEO
Illinois ILL
Indiana INI
Kentucky KTY
Louisiana LOU
Maryland MRY
Mexico Central MXC
Mexico Gulf MXG
Mexico Northeast MXE
Mexico Southeast MXT
Mexico Southwest MXS
Mississippi MSI
Missouri MSO
New Jersey NWJ
New York NWY
North Carolina NCA
Ohio OHI
Oklahoma OKL
Pennsylvania PEN
South Carolina SCA
Tennessee TEN
Texas TEX
Virginia VRG
West Virginia WVA

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 37 in flower of 459 examined

Peak flowering in May. Each bar is the share of Smilax glauca observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 37 of 459 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 8 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Smilax caroliniana F.Dietr.
  • Smilax discolor Schltdl.
  • Smilax glauca var. discolor (Schltdl.) C.V.Morton
  • Smilax glauca var. genuina S.F.Blake
  • Smilax glauca var. glauca
  • Smilax glauca var. leurophylla S.F.Blake
  • Smilax sarsaparilla L.
  • Smilax spinulosa Sm.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.