SMILAX ASPERA

Family and Genus:- See- SMILACACEAE

Common Names:- Common smilax, Rough bindweed.

Synonyms:- Smilax mauritanica, Smilax nigra

Meaning:- Smilax (Gr) A scapper, reference to the prickly stems.

Aspera (L) Rough.

General description:- Dioecious, glabrous, woody climber scrambling in

vegetation

Stems:-

1) Up to 15 m, creeping, scrambling or climbing, angled, unarmed or sparsely to

densely prickly.

Leaves:-

1) Up to 11 x 10 cm alternate, petiolate;

a) blade, usually narrowly triangular-hastate with a rounded, cordate base,

coriaceous, margin often spinulose.

2) Petiole, often with a pair of twining tendrils at the base.

Flowers:-

1) 5-30 in fascicles or subsessile, greenish-white to greenish-yellow, male and

female on separate plants.

2) Umbels on terminal and axillary axes 2-15(-45) cm.

3) Perianth lobes, 3-4 mm, oblong, cream or tinged pink.

Fruit:-

1) Berry, red or black when ripe, 2-4 mm.

Key features:-

1) Leaves, cordate, hastate or sagittate at the base.

2) Flowers, in fascicles or subsessile, umbels arranged along the terminal and

axillary axes.

Habitat:- Constituent of scrubland vegetation and thickets in gorges, by streams

and between olive groves. 0-600(-900) m.

Distribution:- Coastal areas throughout Greece ± lacking in the interior. -

Mediterranean region and SW Asia. Widespread and on Crete, but lacking in

central eastern area.

Flowering time:- Usually Sept-Nov, sometimes also in the spring.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton