BOTANICAL AND ECOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS
SPECIES: Smilax rotundifolia | Common Greenbrier 



GENERAL BOTANICAL CHARACTERISTICS : 
Common greenbrier is a native, woody vine which uses tendrils to climb
10 to 20 feet (3-6 m).  The leathery leaves are deciduous, although
sometimes tardily so in the southeastern states.  The stems are usually
quadrangular and diffusely branched with flattened prickles up to 0.3
inches (0.8 cm) long.  The fruit is a berry [13,14,31,40].  Common
greenbrier has long, slender, nontuberous rhizomes near the soil surface
[14,15,24].  Common greenbrier canes live 2 to 4 years [15].


RAUNKIAER LIFE FORM : 
   Phanerophyte
   Chamaephyte


REGENERATION PROCESSES : 
Common greenbrier regenerates by rhizomes and seed.  Rhizomes persist
for years after the plant has been top-killed by fire or other
disturbance [15].

On mesic sites in Connecticut dominated by shrubs, common greenbrier
clones averaged 10 inches (25 cm) of radial expansion a year.  On xeric
sites where drought and browsing by lagomorphs restricted growth, common
greenbrier clones decreased an average of 2 inches (5 cm) a year [29].
On sites in Ontario, common greenbrier did not spread vegetatively [22].

Common greenbrier produces some fruit every year [30].  Seeds are
dispersed by animals and water [26].  Seeds often germinate when
disturbance increases the amount of light on the soil and brings buried
seeds to the surface [30].  Pogge and Bearce [30] tested common
greenbrier seeds for total and potential germination.  Exposure to light
substantially increased germination.  Seeds stored for 5 years at 36 to
45 degrees Fahrenheit (2-7 deg C) and about 2 percent moisture content
had high viability.


SITE CHARACTERISTICS : 
Common greenbrier is generally a submesic species, but extends onto
subxeric and xeric sites [42].  It occurs on a wide variety of sites;
these include south slopes and ridgetops in the southern Appalachian
Mountains [6,42], low damp flatwoods on the lower Atlantic Coastal Plain
[14], the inland coastal plain of Nova Scotia [33], and banks of
freshwater swamps in Massachusetts [7].  Optimum soil pH is 5.0 to 6.0
[12].


SUCCESSIONAL STATUS : 
Facultative Seral Species

Common greenbrier is a pioneering species as well as a component of
forest understories.  Although it grows in low light conditions, common
greenbrier is also capable of relatively high photosynthetic rates in
full sunlight [5].  Shading of 10 to 20 percent of full sunlight may be
optimal, but good fruit production occurred in 70 to 80 percent shade in
West Virginia [12].

Common greenbrier is often found on recently logged sites, roadsides,
and old fields [12,13,20].  Once vines such as common greenbrier become
established on disturbed sites, they may dominate the early successional
stages [26].

Hemond and others [20] use common greenbrier cover greater than 5
percent as an indicator of 40- to 50-year-old forests of old-field
origin in southern Connecticut.  Common greenbrier declined more than 50
percent over 20 years of observation in this forest [20].


SEASONAL DEVELOPMENT : 
Common greenbrier flowers from April to May in the southeastern states
[21,31,43], from May to June in the northeastern states [12,13], and in
June in southern Canada [34,35].  Fruits ripen in the fall.  All annual
growth is completed in a short time in the spring [12].

Related categories for Species: Smilax rotundifolia | Common Greenbrier