Trying, Tangled Fieldwork

September 20, 2016

by Crystal Cockman

I sit here at my desk after spending last Friday in the woods nursing the scratches on my arms from some fieldwork adventures. My little niece was sweet enough to put Neosporin on them over the weekend, and I’m sure in a few days they will go away entirely. For now though, they remain as marks of doing field work in a swampy bottomland forest in the Piedmont.

The majority of the scratches I suffered likely came from tangling with smilax. Also known as greenbrier, catbrier, or “wait-a-minute” vine, smilax is a climbing flowering plant most notable for its sharp and prickly thorns. Smilax is a genus of approximately 300 species found in tropical and subtropical climates worldwide.

Smilax plants grow as shrubs on their own, or as vines growing over other vegetation, as high as 20 feet tall. Without a machete in hand, it can be rough going to get through these dense thickets. They are also a tough and hardy plant, able to sprout back from the root rhizomes after being cut or burned down by fire.

The leaves of smilax are heart-shaped and can be deciduous or evergreen. They flower in May to June with whitish-green blooms. Smilax berries ripen in the fall with a bluish-black color. The berries persist into winter when they are eaten by birds. Smilax plants also provide protection for a variety of species where larger predators cannot penetrate their dense thickets.

Sarsaparilla comes from the roots of certain species of smilax, used medicinally and for making root beer. They have also been used historically to treat gout and other diseases. The young shoots of some species of smilax can be eaten and are said to taste like asparagus.

Though these plants may seem prolific as you fight your way through them in the underbrush, there is actually one species of smilax that is rare in North Carolina, the Biltmore Carrionflower (Smilax biltmoreana). It grows in forested habitats in the mountains and a few places in the Piedmont.

It’s slow going though a smilax thicket, and some places just take more time than others to steward. Though they seem like a nuisance to humans, smilax provides habitat and food for a variety of species and plays an important part in the ecosystem. I’ll try to remember that when I’m out in the woods the next time and complaining about crawling through greenbriers, but hopefully I’ll also remember my machete next time.