Smilax havanensisJacq.

WFO wfo-0000742659 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Smilax havanensis, photographed by Tom Field
fig. a Tom Field, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-02-08 / obs. 113365592
Smilax havanensis, photographed by juniem
fig. b juniem, CC0 1.0 / obs. 37732516
Smilax havanensis, photographed by Sam Kieschnick
fig. c Sam Kieschnick, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 31202130
Smilax havanensis, photographed by Eric Knight
fig. d Eric Knight, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 2564833
Smilax havanensis, photographed by Sam Kieschnick
fig. e Sam Kieschnick, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 31202052
Smilax havanensis, photographed by Carrie Seltzer
fig. f Carrie Seltzer, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 186097036
Smilax havanensis, photographed by Bill Michalek
fig. g Bill Michalek, CC0 1.0 / obs. 181621274
Smilax havanensis, photographed by Brandon Corder
fig. h Brandon Corder, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 181794728

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 5 botanical countries

Regions where Smilax havanensis is native: Florida, Bahamas, Cayman Is., Cuba, Turks-Caicos Is. FloridaCuba BahamasCayman Is.Turks-Caicos Is.
Native distribution of Smilax havanensis, 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
Bahamas BAH SOUTHERN AMERICA
Cayman Is. CAY
Cuba CUB
Turks-Caicos Is. TCI
Florida FLA NORTHERN AMERICA

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.

Also published as 16 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 dentata Humb. & Bonpl. ex Willd.
  • Smilax havanensis Griseb.
  • Smilax havanensis f. inermis O.E.Schulz
  • Smilax havanensis f. laevis O.E.Schulz
  • Smilax havanensis subvar. dentata (Humb. & Bonpl. ex Willd.) A.DC.
  • Smilax havanensis subvar. ovata (Poir.) A.DC.
  • Smilax havanensis subvar. ovata (Duhamel) A.DC.
  • Smilax havanensis subvar. poiretii (Kunth) A.DC.
  • Smilax havanensis var. armata O.E.Schulz
  • Smilax havanensis var. dentata (Willd.) O.E.Schulz
  • Smilax havanensis var. ovata (Duhamel) O.E.Schulz
  • Smilax havanensis var. vulgaris A.DC.
  • Smilax ovata Duhamel
  • Smilax poiretii Kunth
  • Smilax spinosa Poir.
  • Smilax spinosa var. ovata (Duhamel) Poir.

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. 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.