Scandent, glabrous, dioecious shrubs (rarely erect) with many tough, perennial prickly stems from a compact rhizome with many roots
Leaves
alternate, on short petioles, with a pair of spiral tendrils near base of petiole (an extension of leaf sheath); blade with 3-5 strong nerves and reticulate venation between main veins, firm
Flowers
regular, hypogynous, unisexual, small, in axillary umbels or terminal compound inflorescences
Tepals
3 + 3, free, petaloid
Male flowers
with 6 (-15) free stamens; anthers basifixed, thecae confluent, appearing unithecate; ovary 0
Female flowers
with 6 filiform staminodes; ovary superior, 3-locular, with 1 or 2 axile ovules; style 0 or short; stigmas 3
Fruit
a berry
Seeds
1-3, globose or semiglobose
x = 16 (13, 15, 17) (high polyploidy)
Nomenclature:
Smilax
L.
Linnaeus: 1028 (1753)
Kunth: 160 (1850)
Candolle: 45 (1878)
Baker: 256 (1896)
Krause: 382 (1930)
Hutchinson: 764 (1973)
Obermeyer: 85 (1992)
Distribution & Notes:
Global
: Species ± 300
Southern Africa
: Species 1:
Smilax anceps
Willd., Northern Province, Mpumalanga, Swaziland, KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape
References:
BAKER, J.G. 1896.
Smilax
.
Flora capensis
6
CANDOLLE, A.L.P.P. DE. 1878.
Smilacaceae
. In A.L.P.P. de Candolle & A.C.P. de Candolle,
Monographiae phanerogamarum
1. Masson, Paris
HUTCHINSON, J. 1973.
The families of the flowering plants
, edn 3. Clarendon, Oxford
KRAUSE, K. 1930.
Smilacoideae
.
Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien
, edn 2, 15a
KUNTH, C.S. 1850.
Enumeratio plantarum
5. Cotta, Stuttgart & Tübingen
LINNAEUS, C. 1753.
Species plantarum
. Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
OBERMEYER, A.A. 1992.
Flora of southern Africa
5,3
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