SPECIES:  Smilax rotundifolia

• Introductory
• Distribution and Occurrence
• Management Considerations
• Botanical and Ecological Characteristics
• Fire Ecology
• Fire Effects
• References

Introductory
SPECIES: Smilax rotundifolia



AUTHORSHIP AND CITATION : 
Carey, Jennifer H. 1994. Smilax rotundifolia. In: Fire Effects Information System, [Online]. 
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, 
Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). 
Available: http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/ [].




ABBREVIATION : 
SMIROT

SYNONYMS : 
NO-ENTRY


SCS PLANT CODE : 
   SMRO


COMMON NAMES : 
   common greenbrier
   roundleaf greenbrier


TAXONOMY : 
The currently accepted scientific name for common greenbrier is Smilax
rotundifolia L. (Smilacaceae) [13,31].

Some authors recognize a variant:  S. r. var. quadrangularis (Muhl.)
Wood [34,40,43].


LIFE FORM : 
Vine

FEDERAL LEGAL STATUS : 
See OTHER STATUS

OTHER STATUS : 
Common greenbrier is listed as rare in Canada [1].  It is the only
woody monocot in southern Canada [22].

DISTRIBUTION AND OCCURRENCE
SPECIES: Smilax rotundifolia



GENERAL DISTRIBUTION : 
Common greenbrier occurs throughout the eastern United States.  Its
range extends as far north as southern Nova Scotia and southern Ontario
and continues west to southern Michigan, Indiana, and southern Illinois;
south through southeastern Missouri to eastern Texas; and east to
northern Florida [13,14,31,34].


ECOSYSTEMS : 
   FRES10  White - red - jack pine
   FRES11  Spruce - fir
   FRES12  Longleaf - slash pine
   FRES13  Loblolly - shortleaf pine
   FRES14  Oak - pine
   FRES15  Oak - hickory
   FRES16  Oak - gum - cypress
   FRES17  Elm - ash - cottonwood
   FRES18  Maple - beech - birch


STATES : 
     AL  AR  CT  DE  FL  GA  IL  IN  KY  LA
     ME  MD  MA  MI  MS  MO  NH  NJ  NY  NC
     OH  OK  PA  RI  SC  TN  TX  VT  VA  WV
     NS  ON



BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS : 
NO-ENTRY


KUCHLER PLANT ASSOCIATIONS : 
   K089  Black Belt
   K095  Great Lakes pine forest
   K097  Southeastern spruce-fir forest
   K098  Northern floodplain forest
   K100  Oak - hickory forest
   K103  Mixed mesophytic forest
   K104  Appalachian oak forest
   K106  Northern hardwoods
   K110  Northeastern oak - pine forest
   K111  Oak - hickory - pine forest
   K112  Southern mixed forest
   K113  Southern floodplain forest


SAF COVER TYPES : 
    20  White pine - northern red oak - red maple
    21  Eastern white pine
    23  Eastern hemlock
    30  Red spruce - yellow birch
    32  Red spruce
    44  Chestnut oak
    45  Pitch pine
    46  Eastern redcedar
    53  White oak
    70  Longleaf pine
    79  Virginia pine
    81  Loblolly pine
    82  Loblolly pine - hardwood
    83  Longleaf pine - slash pine
    95  Black willow
    97  Atlantic white-cedar
    98  Pond pine
   108  Red maple
   110  Black oak


SRM (RANGELAND) COVER TYPES : 
NO-ENTRY


HABITAT TYPES AND PLANT COMMUNITIES : 
Common greenbrier occurs in a wide variety of plant communities.
Understory associates of common greenbrier in moist woods include
mapleleaf viburnum (Viburnum acerifolium), grape (Vitis spp.), flowering
dogwood (Cornus florida), New York fern (Thelypteris noveboracensis),
cat greenbrier (Smilax glauca), cane (Arundinaria gigantea), eastern
poison-ivy (Toxicodendron radicans), and Virginia creeper
(Parthenocissus quinquefolia). [2,12,18,17].

In Atlantic white-cedar (Chamaecyparis thyoides) communities in North
Carolina, common greenbrier occurs with sweetbay (Magnolia virginiana),
redbay (Persea borbonia), large gallberry (Ilex coriacea), hurrahbush
(Lyonia lucida), blueberry (Vaccinium spp.), and cinnamon fern (Osmunda
cinnamomea) [25].

In drier woods, heath balds, heath-shrub communities, and rhododendron
(Rhododendron spp.) thickets, common greenbrier occurs with black
huckleberry (Gaylussacia baccata), hillside blueberry (Vaccinium
pallidum), and low sweet blueberry (V. angustifolia).  Other associates
of dry sites include mountain-laurel (Kalmia latifolia), swamp
dog-laurel (Leucothoe axillaris), Carolina holly (Ilex ambigua), and
mountain white-alder (Clethra acuminata) [6,42,44].

Common greenbrier occurs in old fields with black locust (Robinia
pseudoacacia), sassafras (Sassafras albidum), blackberry (Rubus spp.),
blueberry, and bracken fern (Pteridium aquilinum) [12].

MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS
SPECIES: Smilax rotundifolia





IMPORTANCE TO LIVESTOCK AND WILDLIFE : 
Numerous birds and animals eat common greenbrier fruits.  The persistent
fruits are an important late winter and early spring food for wintering
birds including northern cardinals and white-throated sparrows [2].
White-tailed deer and lagomorphs browse the foliage [4,12,15,16].

Common greenbrier forms impenetrable thickets of prickly branches which
probably create good cover for small mammals and birds.


PALATABILITY : 
The green canes, tender shoots, and leaves are palatable to white-tailed
deer [15,16].


NUTRITIONAL VALUE : 
Ehrenfeld [9] determined nitrogen concentrations of common greenbrier
leaves and new twigs from four wetland communities in the New Jersey
pine barrens.  Nitrogen concentrations were 1.28 percent dry weight in
the floodplain community, 1.52 in the pine lowlands, 1.89 in the wet
hardwoods, and 2.09 in the dry hardwoods.  Nitrogen concentrations of
common greenbrier stems on all sites averaged 0.61 percent dry weight
[9].


COVER VALUE : 
NO-ENTRY


VALUE FOR REHABILITATION OF DISTURBED SITES : 
NO-ENTRY


OTHER USES AND VALUES : 
NO-ENTRY


OTHER MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS : 
Niering and Goodwin [29] recommend common greenbrier and other clonal
shrubs for right-of-way clearings where trees interfere with powerlines.
Dense common greenbrier, hillside blueberry, and black huckleberry
thickets resisted invasion of trees for at least 15 years in a
right-of-way from which trees were originally removed by herbicide
application.

In Shenandoah National Park, Virginia, common greenbrier was more
important close to trails than in inaccessible areas, suggesting that it
is resistant to disturbance [19].

Medium and heavy thinning of a Louisiana loblolly pine (Pinus taeda)
plantation increased greenbrier (Smilax spp.) productivity [4].

Greenbriers (Smilax spp.) are resistant to most herbicides [47].  Two
years after a late summer application of glyphosate, common greenbrier
foliage appeared normal and healthy [41].

Propagation and eradication techniques are described for common
greenbrier [12].

BOTANICAL AND ECOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS
SPECIES: Smilax rotundifolia



GENERAL BOTANICAL CHARACTERISTICS : 
Common greenbrier is a native liana that 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].

FIRE ECOLOGY
SPECIES: Smilax rotundifolia



FIRE ECOLOGY OR ADAPTATIONS : 
Common greenbrier resists fire by sprouting from rhizomes [15,27,28].
Canopy openings caused by fire may favor common greenbrier. 


POSTFIRE REGENERATION STRATEGY : 
   Secondary colonizer - off-site seed

FIRE EFFECTS
SPECIES: Smilax rotundifolia



IMMEDIATE FIRE EFFECT ON PLANT : 
Common greenbrier is top-killed by fire [46].


DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF FIRE EFFECT : 
NO-ENTRY


PLANT RESPONSE TO FIRE : 
Common greenbrier sprouts from rhizomes after fire.  Common greenbrier
responded with vigorous vegetative reproduction to spring and fall
prescribed fires in eastern white pine (Pinus strobus) and eastern white
pine-hardwood forests in New Hampshire.  The fires were of low intensity,
with flames greater than 20 inches (50 cm) high, and burned only the
surface litter layer [46].

Common greenbrier sprouted after an early March headfire in a young
eastern Texas loblolly pine-shortleaf pine (P. echinata)-hardwood
forest.  The fire consumed 80 to 90 percent of the previous year's
needle and leaf fall and about 50 percent of the older accumulated
litter.  The average common greenbrier height 2 years after the fire was
46 inches (118 cm) with an average of 1.60 stems per plant.  Average
height on the unburned control was 187 inches (476 cm) with an average
of 1.73 stems per plant [37].

Annual and biennial early April fires were conducted in little bluestem
(Schizachyrium scoparium) grasslands in Connecticut [27,28].  The study
sites were on agricultural lands abandoned 40 to 60 years previously and
had up to 40 percent woody cover of clonal shrubs.  After 15 years of
burning, common greenbrier frequency increased over prefire levels on
one plot but decreased slightly on another due to heavy lagomorph use of
succulent postfire shoots.  Cover of common greenbrier changed very
little during the 18-year study, so the authors classified common
greenbrier as a persistent species rather than an increaser.  On unburned
plots adjacent to the burns, common greenbrier increased in cover and
frequency over the duration of the study.

FIRE MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS : 
Common greenbrier foliage was sampled 1 and 2 years after low-severity
and high-severity fires and compared to common greenbrier foliage in
unburned areas.  The first growing season after the low-severity fire,
common greenbrier protein content was 7.8 percent higher than on
unburned areas, but no difference was detected the second postfire
growing season.  One and two years after the high-severity fire, the
protein contents were 6 percent and 19 percent higher, respectively,
than foliage from unburned areas.  Neither fire produced substantial
changes in total solids, ash, ether content, crude fiber, or
nitrogen-free extract [8].

Greenbrier spp. (Smilax rotundifolia and S. laurifolia) are a component
of several fuel models for the coastal plain of North Carolina.  They
contribute to ladder fuels in the high pocosin type.  Greenbrier
intertwines with grass species in some types, impeding foot travel [45].

REFERENCES
SPECIES: Smilax rotundifolia



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