North Carolina Wildflowers, Shrubs, & Trees

Smilacaceae (Liliaceae) > Smilax (greenbrier, carrionflower)

Greenbriers can form nearly impenetrable thickets along creeks, hedges, and forest edges. Roundleaf Greenbrier is found statewide in many different habitats and can climb 15 to 20 feet high.

Berries ripen in the fall, becoming bluish-black, often with a whitish sheen.

Nasty thorns!

Common statewide in North Carolina, Whiteleaf Greenbrier grows in many forested habitats from swamps to uplands.

Undersides of leaves are very glaucus (white-ish).

Berries are dark blue-black and persist into the winter until eaten by various birds and mammals.

Thicket-forming and high-climbing, this species can be a formidable barrier with its spined stems.

Common in the coastal plain and rare elsewhere in North Carolina, Laurel Greenbrier grows in various wet habitats like pocosins, bogs, swamps, etc.

Laurel Greenbrier is a trailing and climbing evergreen vine utilizing tendrils. The berries turn bluish-black when ripe and take over a year to mature!

Leaves are relatively parallel-sided, are thick and evergreen, and have a much more pronounced midvein (as viewed from below) than principal lateral veins.

Rare in NC in the mountains and a few piedmont locations, this distinctive Smilax grows in various forested habitats.

Common in the NC coastal plain in wet forested habitats like swamps and pocosins.

Strikingly beautiful reddish berries brighten the swamp in fall and winter until eaten by birds.

Leaves are green above and below, deciduous, and lack marginal tooth-like projections.

Stems with relatively few prickles.

Common in sandy habitats along the immediate coast in North Carolina.

More photos of Dune Greenbrier here.

Young fruiting cluster. When mature, fruits will be dark blue.

Common in western NC in moist forested habitats.

Stems are herbaceous and lack prickles.

The undersides of the leaves are glaucous.