Smilax bona-nox

Saw greenbrier is a rampant vine from thickened and knotty rhizome with stems and branches are four-ridge. The leaves are variable in shape but have spines on the margins and mid-veins; often variegated. The fruit is black with one seed.

The following Information is for the genus Smilax: Animals that eat its fruit: Wood duck, Cardinal, Catbird, Common crow, Fish crow, Yellow-shafted flicker, Mockingbird, Robin, Fox sparrow, White-throated sparrow, Brown thrasher, Hermit thrush, Cedar waxwing, Pileated woodpecker, Attwater's wood rat, Wood rat. Animals that eat its fruit, leaves, and buds: Greater prairie chicken, Wild turkey. Animals that eat its fruit and stems: Black bear, Beaver, Opossum, Mearns cottontail rabbit, Raccoon, Fox squirrel, Gray squirrel. Animals that eat the plant: White-tailed deer (Martin et al. 1951).

A gallery forest species that creeps into prairie in the absence of fire. The Acadian French name for all the members of the genus Smilax is "cantaque" . This name comes from the Choctaw name for greenbriar (Holmes 1990). Smilax bona-nox has a large, knotty root that was used as food by Indians. It grows in thickets, open woods, and on floodplains and hillsides of Louisiana and east Texas. It ranges from Virginia south to Florida and west to Texas. The new succulent growth at the tips of smilax vines are edible.

Dry woods, thickets, cedar brakes, floodplains, hillsides.