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Unless you need a spiny vine, not necessarily hardy or evergreen, that will cover a large territory in a hurry and fill the space with an impenetrable, tangled mass, pass this section over lightly. It’s included in behalf of gardeners who need a thick barrier, or whose growing conditions are so nearly impossible that not much else will survive.

These are woody, thorny, stem-twining vines with firm-textured foliage, inconspicuous (in one case, unpleasant) flowers – one sex per plant – and, with pollination, small berries in fall. Various species are variously hardy, but all will survive with sun or shade, poor soil, drought, and other adverse conditions. Propagate by division of roots in spring.

Smilax herbaceae – carrion flower – Deciduous Northern native with five-inch oval leaves, malodorous flowers, blue-black berries. Its spreading underground roots are almost ineradicable.

Smilax lanceolata – Native Southern evergreen that can climb to seventy feet. The slim-oval foliage, about three inches long, is used in florists’ arrangements. Can be invasive.

Smilax megalantha – Most desirable of the hardy species, with nine-inch leathery leaves and showier clusters of coral-red fruit. Evergreen and hardy beginning somewhere south of Washington, D.C.

Smilax hispida – Native from Connecticut south, with deciduous, rough-edged leaves and black fruit. Less pesty because it lacks underground, spreading roots.

Smilax rotundifolia – greenbrier, horsebrier – Native to nearly the length of the East Coast. Deciduous in the North, semievergreen in the South. Six-inch oval leaves, plum-tinged black fruit. Use this to discourage the neighborhood dogs.

Family: Liliaceae
Common Name: Greenbriar