Smilax
Is EVIL! It is a thorny vine that in the wild will grow into thickets like what burr rabbit lived in, and like what birds will build their nests in to protect them from predators. This is all well and good, but when it invades your yard it is a pest.

It spreads either by birds eating the berries of the plant or through rhizomes near the surface. Apparently when it spreads in a local area by rhizome there are often both sexes of the plant present and they do not grow fruit.

These things sprout up a shoot with fleshy thorns and a few leaves at the top, they quickly grow straight up looking for sunlight. If allowed to grow to the top of the canopy they will the wrap themselves around whatever they have grown up through and become hard and woody, the thorns hardening into a sharp dangerous thing.

If you cut them off at the ground a new sprout simply comes up in place if it a few days later. they grow very fast.

The only way to get rid of them is to dig up the rhizome. And if you leave just a part of it in the ground it will grow more. These rhizomes are much like large ginger root, so you can see how it would break off if you aren't careful...

I just spent two hours in the yard digging them up. I'm sure they will come back soon. Some I was unable to get because they are growing near the root systems of trees...

I guess this is part of the punishment we must endure from the Fall...

Although, it has been said that if you cut the shoots when they are tender and cook them they taste similar to asparagus. And the rhizome is used to make sarsaparilla and other herbal medicines.

Smilax on Wikipedia
- posted by Nick @ 5/08/2007 03:45:00 PM | 0 comments