|
Wildlife, Animals, and Plants
|
|
Introductory
SPECIES: Smilax laurifolia | Laurelleaf Greenbrier
ABBREVIATION :
SMILAU
SYNONYMS :
Smilax lanceolata L.
SCS PLANT CODE :
SMLA
COMMON NAMES :
laurelleaf greenbrier
TAXONOMY :
The currently accepted scientific name for laurelleaf greenbrier is
Smilax laurifolia L. There are no recognized infrataxa [11,18,19,24].
LIFE FORM :
Vine
FEDERAL LEGAL STATUS :
No special status
OTHER STATUS :
NO-ENTRY
COMPILED BY AND DATE :
Timothy R. Van Deelen, August 1991
LAST REVISED BY AND DATE :
NO-ENTRY
AUTHORSHIP AND CITATION :
Van Deelen, Timothy R. 1991. Smilax laurifolia. In: Remainder of Citation
DISTRIBUTION AND OCCURRENCE
SPECIES: Smilax laurifolia | Laurelleaf Greenbrier
GENERAL DISTRIBUTION :
Laurelleaf greenbrier grows along the Gulf and southeastern Atlantic
coastal plains of the United States. Its range extends from central New
Jersey, south to southern Florida, and west to eastern Texas. Inland,
its range extends north from the Gulf Coast to Arkansas, and west from
the Atlantic Coast to eastern Tennessee. Laurelleaf greenbriar also
grows in Cuba and the Bahamas [11].
ECOSYSTEMS :
FRES13 Loblolly - shortleaf pine
FRES15 Oak - hickory
FRES16 Oak - gum - cypress
FRES41 Wet grasslands
STATES :
AL AR FL GA MD NJ NC SC TN TX
VA
ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS :
BICY BITH CALO COSW CUIS EVER
GUIS HOSP NATR RICH
BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS :
NO-ENTRY
KUCHLER PLANT ASSOCIATIONS :
K080 Marl - everglades
K089 Black belt
K092 Everglades
K105 Mangrove
K111 Oak - hickory - pine forest
K113 Southern floodplain forest
K114 Pocosin
SAF COVER TYPES :
73 Southern redcedar
75 Shortleaf pine
81 Loblolly pine
87 Sweetgum - yellow poplar
92 Sweetgum - willow oak
97 Atlantic white-cedar
98 Pond pine
100 Pondcypress
102 Baldcypress - tupelo
103 Water tupelo - swamp tupelo
104 Sweetbay - swamp tupelo - redbay
105 Tropical hardwoods
SRM (RANGELAND) COVER TYPES :
NO-ENTRY
HABITAT TYPES AND PLANT COMMUNITIES :
Wells [27] cites laurelleaf greenbrier as a dominant in his pocosin
community type classification system.
VALUE AND USE
SPECIES: Smilax laurifolia | Laurelleaf Greenbrier
WOOD PRODUCTS VALUE :
NO-ENTRY
IMPORTANCE TO LIVESTOCK AND WILDLIFE :
Black bears and a variety of bird species feed on laurelleaf greenbrier
fruit; however, it was refused by captive marsh rabbits [3,14]. The
pocosins and woodlands where laurelleaf greenbrier grows are important
to a variety of Southeastern wildlife including the white-tailed deer,
bobcat, gray squirrel, Eastern diamond-back rattlesnake, American
alligator, pine barrens tree frog, and the endangered red-cockaded
woodpecker [23].
PALATABILITY :
NO-ENTRY
NUTRITIONAL VALUE :
NO-ENTRY
COVER VALUE :
NO-ENTRY
VALUE FOR REHABILITATION OF DISTURBED SITES :
Laurelleaf greenbrier may be propagated by its tuberous rhizomes [25]
and once established, grows with unusual vigor [19]. It is potentially
valuable for rehabilitation prescriptions calling for quick
establishment of dense cover.
OTHER USES AND VALUES :
As a member of pocosin plant communities, laurelleaf greenbrier helps
provide essential habitat for the following endangered plants: white
wickey (Kalmia cuneata), arrowleaf shieldwort (Peltandra sagittaefolia),
spring-flowering golden rod (Solidago verna), and rough-leaf loostrife
(Lysimachia asperulaefolia) [23].
MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS :
Laurelleaf greenbrier is a silvicultural pest. On cut-over sites it
inhibits southern white cedar (Chamaecyparis thyoides) regeneration by
climbing cedar seedlings and causing physical damage from the
accumulated weight of several vines [3]. Drainage and fire caused an
increase in laureleaf greenbrier in the Everglades Mariscus-Myrica-Ilex
type [16].
BOTANICAL AND ECOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS
SPECIES: Smilax laurifolia | Laurelleaf Greenbrier
GENERAL BOTANICAL CHARACTERISTICS :
Laurelleaf greenbrier is a monocotyledonous, woody vine native to the
southeastern United States. Its stems are armed with abundant to
occasional, stout prickles. It frequently climbs overstory vegetation.
Dead stems persist and help to form dense tangled thickets on sites
where laurelleaf greenbrier grows [6,11].
Underground, the stems of laurelleaf greenbrier form thick, heavy,
tuberous rhizomes. The rhizomes have reddish surfaces and are massive.
They support vigorous sprouts, capable of averaging 2.5 inches (7 cm)
of growth per day during the growing season [11,19].
Laurelleaf greenbrier leaves are evergreen, rounded, and leathery.
Short, twisted petioles hold the leaves erect from the stems.
Laurelleaf greenbrier flowers are small regular and borne in axillary
umbels. The fruit is a berry which is shiney-black at maturity. The
fruits ripen the second season after fruit-set and often persist into or
through their second winter. Berry production is prodigious
[6,9,11,19].
RAUNKIAER LIFE FORM :
Phanerophyte
REGENERATION PROCESSES :
Laureleaf greenbrier regenerates vegetatively by sprouting from its
tuberous rhizomes [19,25]. It also regenerates sexually although the
details have not been described. The nature of the fruit, its use by
wildlife (see IMPORTANCE TO LIVESTOCK AND WILDLIFE), and records of
seedling germination in black bear scat [3] indicate that the seeds are
dispersed by animals.
SITE CHARACTERISTICS :
Laurelleaf greenbrier grows in shrub-tree bogs, cypress (Taxodium
spp.)-gum (Nyssa spp.) depressions, along marshy stream banks [11], and
in Louisiana pitcher-plant (Sarracenia spp.) bogs [1]. It is abundant
in all age classes in cypress heads, especially along the margins [21];
and is a dominant in pocosin communities [23]. In Everglades National
Park, laurelleaf greenbrier is common in hammock understories and
occasional in sawgrass (Cladium spp.) swamps [7]. It is characteristic
of Okefenokee Swamp understories [4,5], and is common on burned or open
areas in the Great Dismal Swamp [20,28], and mesic sites in North
Carolina's Green Swamp [26].
Typical laurelleaf greenbrier soils are mucky, peaty, acidic organics
(Histosols). They are often poorly drained [20,23]. Water regimes are
saturated; sites are frequently or seasonally flooded [23].
Laurelleaf greenbrier is "almost always present on pond pine (Pinus
serotina) sites" [2]. Other common overstory associates include
cypress, swamp blackgum (N. sylvatica), white bay (Magnolia virginiana),
loblolly bay (Gordonia lasianthus), sweet bay (Persea borbonia), red
maple (Acer rubrum), Cassena (Ilex cassine), titi (Cyrilla racemiflora),
and southern white cedar [5,23]. Understory associates include
hurrahbush (Lyonia lucida), leucothoe (Leucothoe racemosa) sweetspire
(Itea virginica), poor-man's soap (Clethra alnifolia), coral greenbrier
(S. walteri), and honeycup (Zenobia pulverulenta) [5].
SUCCESSIONAL STATUS :
Laurelleaf greenbrier is an early-seral species in the successional
trend toward mature lowland forests and is a severe competitor of tree
seedlings [3]. Although a common understory species, laurelleaf
greenbier apparently grows better in full sunlight. Overstory removal
releases it to form dense thickets [12].
SEASONAL DEVELOPMENT :
Laurelleaf greenbrier shows its most pronounced growth between April and
June [19]. It flowers between July and August [6,29] and its berries
ripen during August and September of their second growing season [25].
FIRE ECOLOGY
SPECIES: Smilax laurifolia | Laurelleaf Greenbrier
FIRE ECOLOGY OR ADAPTATIONS :
Laurelleaf greenbier probably survives fire by sprouting from persistant
rhizomes. Animal-assisted seed dispersal and seedling establishment are
probably of secondary importance.
POSTFIRE REGENERATION STRATEGY :
Rhizomatous shrub, rhizome in soil
Secondary colonizer - off-site seed
FIRE EFFECTS
SPECIES: Smilax laurifolia | Laurelleaf Greenbrier
IMMEDIATE FIRE EFFECT ON PLANT :
Most fires probably top-kill laurelleaf greenbrier. Presumably, its
rhizomes may be killed by fires severe enough to consume or sufficiently
heat the soil's organic layer.
DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF FIRE EFFECT :
NO-ENTRY
PLANT RESPONSE TO FIRE :
Laurelleaf greenbrier's well-developed rhizomes, capacity for vigorous
growth [19], and early seral nature [3] suggest that it responds to fire
with quick and vigorous sprouting. It was among the first to flower
after a fire in a North Carolina pine-wiregrass (Aristida spp.) type
[13].
DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF PLANT RESPONSE :
NO-ENTRY
FIRE MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS :
Heat values of fuels are basic to predicting the potential heat released
during a fire. Laurelleaf greenbrier foliage yeilds 227,000 calories
per pound (5,000 cal/g) and is 2.9 percent ash [12].
REFERENCES
SPECIES: Smilax laurifolia | Laurelleaf Greenbrier
REFERENCES :
1. Allen, Charles M.; Stagg, Charles H.; Parris, Stephen D. 1988. Analysis
of the vegetation in pitcher plant bogs in two baygalls at Ft. Polk in
west central Louisiana. The Proceedings of the Louisiana Academy of
Sciences. 50: 1-6. [12118]
2. Bramlett, David L. 1990. Pinus serotina Michx. pond pine. In: Burns,
Russell M.; Honkala, Barbara H., technical coordinators. Silvics of
North America. Volume 1. Conifers. Agric. Handb. 654. Washington, DC:
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service: 470-475. [13407]
3. Buell, Murray F.; Cain, Robert L. 1943. The successional role of
southern white cedar, Chamaecyparis thyoides, in southeastern North
Carolina. Ecology. 24(1): 85-93. [14091]
4. Cypert, Eugene. 1961. The effects of fires in the Okefenokee Swamp in
1954 and 1955. American Midland Naturalist. 66(2): 485-503. [11018]
5. Cypert, Eugene. 1973. Plant succession on burned areas in Okefenokee
Swamp following the fires of 1954 and 1955. In: Proceedings, annual Tall
Timbers fire ecology conference; 1972 June 8-9; Lubbock, TX. Number 12.
Tallahassee, FL: Tall Timbers Research Station: 199-217. [8467]
6. Duncan, Wilbur H.; Duncan, Marion B. 1987. The Smithsonian guide to
seaside plants of the Gulf and Atlantic Coasts from Louisiana to
Massachusetts, exclusive of lower peninsular Florida. Washington, DC:
Smithsonian Institution Press. 409 p. [12906]
7. Egler, Frank E. 1952. Southeast saline Everglades vegetation, Florida,
and its management. Vegetatio. 3: 213-265. [11479]
8. Eyre, F. H., ed. 1980. Forest cover types of the United States and
Canada. Washington, DC: Society of American Foresters. 148 p. [905]
9. Fernald, Merritt Lyndon. 1950. Gray's manual of botany. [Corrections
supplied by R. C. Rollins]. Portland, OR: Dioscorides Press. 1632 p.
(Dudley, Theodore R., gen. ed.; Biosystematics, Floristic & Phylogeny
Series; vol. 2). [14935]
10. Garrison, George A.; Bjugstad, Ardell J.; Duncan, Don A.; [and others].
1977. Vegetation and environmental features of forest and range
ecosystems. Agric. Handb. 475. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of
Agriculture, Forest Service. 68 p. [998]
11. Godfrey, Robert K. 1988. Trees, shrubs, and woody vines of northern
Florida and adjacent Georgia and Alabama. Athens, GA: The University of
Georgia Press. 734 p. [10239]
12. Hough, Walter A. 1969. Caloric value of some forest fuels of the
southern United States. Res. Note SE-120. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department
of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southeastern Forest Experiment Station.
6 p. [10517]
13. Johnson, A. Sydney; Landers, J. Larry. 1978. Fruit production in slash
pine plantations in Georgia. Journal of Wildlife Management. 42(3):
606-613. [9855]
14. Kartesz, John T.; Kartesz, Rosemarie. 1980. A synonymized checklist of
the vascular flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland. Volume
II: The biota of North America. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North
Carolina Press; in confederation with Anne H. Lindsey and C. Richie
Bell, North Carolina Botanical Garden. 500 p. [6954]
15. Kuchler, A. W. 1964. Manual to accompany the map of potential vegetation
of the conterminous United States. Special Publication No. 36. New York:
American Geographical Society. 77 p. [1384]
16. Loveless, Charles M. 1959. A study of the vegetation in the Florida
Everglades. Ecology. 40(1): 1-9. [11478]
17. Lyon, L. Jack; Stickney, Peter F. 1976. Early vegetal succession
following large northern Rocky Mountain wildfires. In: Proceedings, Tall
Timbers fire ecology conference and Intermountain Fire Research Council
fire and land management symposium; 1974 October 8-10; Missoula, MT. No.
14. Tallahassee, FL: Tall Timbers Research Station: 355-373. [1496]
18. MacRoberts, B. R.; MacRoberts, M. H. 1988. Floristic composition of two
west Louisiana pitcher plant pogs. Phytologia. 65(3): 184-190. [10128]
19. Martin, Ben F.; Tucker, S. C. 1985. Developmental studies in Smilax
(Liliaceae). I. Organography and the shoot apex. American Journal of
Botany. 72(1): 66-74. [15086]
20. McKinley, Carol E.; Day, Frank P., Jr. 1979. Herb. prod. in cut-burned,
uncut-burned & contl areas of a Chamaecyparis thyoides (L.) BSP
(Cupressaceae) stand in the Great Dismal Swamp. Bulletin of the Torrey
Botanical Club. 106(1): 20-28. [14089]
21. Monk, Carl D.; Brown, Timothy W. 1965. Ecological consideration of
cypress heads in north-central Florida. American Midland Naturalist. 74:
126-140. [10848]
22. Raunkiaer, C. 1934. The life forms of plants and statistical plant
geography. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 632 p. [2843]
23. Richardson, Curtis J. 1983. Pocosins: vanishing wastelands or valuable
wetlands?. Bioscience. 33(10): 626-633. [13818]
24. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Soil Conservation Service. 1982.
National list of scientific plant names. Vol. 1. List of plant names.
SCS-TP-159. Washington, DC. 416 p. [11573]
25. Van Dersal, William R. 1938. Native woody plants of the United States,
their erosion-control and wildlife values. Washington, DC: U.S.
Department of Agriculture. 362 p. [4240]
26. Walker, Joan; Peet, Robert K. 1983. Composition and species diversity of
pine-wiregrass savannas of the Green Swamp, North Carolina. Vegetatio.
55: 163-179. [10132]
27. Wells, B. W. 1928. Plant communities of the Coastal Plain of North
Carolina and their successional relations. Ecology. 9(2): 230-242.
[9307]
28. Whitehead, Donald R. 1972. Developmental and environmental history of
the Dismal Swamp. Ecological Monographs. 42(3): 301-315. [15097]
29. Wofford, B. Eugene. 1989. Guide to the vascular plants of the Blue
Ridge. Athens, GA: The University of Georgia Press. 384 p. [12908]
30. Stickney, Peter F. 1989. Seral origin of species originating in northern
Rocky Mountain forests. Unpublished draft on file at: U.S. Department of
Agriculture, Forest Service, Intermountain Research Station, Fire
Sciences Laboratory, Missoula, MT; RWU 4403 files. 7 p. [20090]
Index
Related categories for Species: Smilax laurifolia
| Laurelleaf Greenbrier
|
 |
