Wildflower Wednesday: Smilax bona-nox

"Yikes!"

That was me as I tried to get a photo of the Wildflower Wednesday plant of the month Smilax bona-nox and its thorns dug into my coat and smacked me in the head. I have mixed feelings about many plants and this one is clearly in the "why, oh, why do you keep showing up in my garden" category.

"Steven J. Baskauf http://bioimages.vanderbilt.edu/"

Smilax bona-nox is a species of flowering plant in the Smilacaceae, or Greenbrier family. Its natural range is from eastern Mexico to central Texas north to southeastern  Nebraska, east to Maryland and south to Florida. Smilax is more often a climbing vine, but, it can form a tangled impenetrable bush. It has attractive, waxy heart shaped leaves with tiny thorns along the leaf margins (top photo). Separate male and female plants are needed for fruit production. The flower is an umbel of pale green flowers and the fruit is a small black berry. The plant reproduces by seed and by sprouting from its rhizome.

Close-up of a developing infructescence photo by Alan Cressler source

Another name for this native plant is saw greenbrier. The thorny vines make this a problem plant in a cultivated wildflower garden.

the thorns are 1/2 inch long on this vine

Greenbrier seedlings pop up wherever birds might transpoop a seed. That's often near where people walk or garden. It's a hazard in my garden and needs to be dug out. Not only was it in a location that put people in harms way, the vines were pulling a small Aronia arbutifolia over. It was this vine that smacked me in the head, so down it came.

James Locke and Eddie Funderburg  photos of roots and tuber

Smilax is one of those plants that must be dug out, not just cut back. It's better to catch them when they're young and easier to dig. Shoots will develop where ever there is a node creating an enormous rhizomatous root mass. It's a big job to remove a large vine. I needed help.

Even the pretty leaves have thorns

Are there pluses to greenbrier?

James Locke and Eddie Funderburg  photos

Yes, there are pluses to greenbrier.

It has very good wildlife value. Just make sure it's not near where people will be walking or working and let it grow. It will make a formidable thicket where mammals and birds can shelter and the Gray catbird will nest. White-tailed Deer, Beaver, and Eastern Cottontail will eat the leaves. The flowers of Greenbrier are pollinated by Blue Bottle Flies. Many animals eat the berries, including: Wild Turkey, Wood Duck, Northern Cardinal, Gray Catbird, Common Crow, Northern Mockingbird, American Robin, Brown Thrasher, Cedar Waxwing, Pileated Woodpecker, Virginia Opossum, Raccoon, and Eastern Gray Squirrel.

Or, you can embrace Sally Wasowski's suggestion from Gardening with native plants of the South. "Do not plant, put an existing one to use....Your task with smilax is not to coddle it or nurture it but to keep it cut back."  Hmm. If we can put up with prickly rose canes we can certainly entertain the idea of a flowering and berrying greenbrier arch someplace in the garden!

tendril and thorns

Smilax will grow almost anywhere. It is common in woodland understories, forest edges, fencerows and rangeland settings in full to partial sun. It's considered by many to be one of the most difficult perennial vines to control or eradicate from their gardens.

What do you think? Is good wildlife value enough of a reason to have a plant in your garden? Would you try to manage it with pruning or dig it out?
xoxogail

Thank you for stopping by and welcome to Clay and Limestone's Wildflower Wednesday celebration. WW is about sharing and celebrating wildflowers from all over this great big, beautiful world. Join us on the fourth Wednesday of each month. Remember, it doesn't matter if they are in bloom or not; and, it doesn't matter if we all share the same plants. It's all about celebrating wildflowers. Please leave a comment when you add your url to Mr Linky.




Gail Eichelberger is a gardener and therapist in Middle Tennessee. She loves wildflowers and native plants and thoroughly enjoys writing about the ones she grows at Clay and Limestone. She reminds all that the words and images are the property of the author and cannot be used without written permission.

We Can't All Be Pretty Pollinators

Flies Pollinate, Too!

Unknown fly nectaring on Hamamelis mollis at a local nursery

Yes, I did say flies! Those pesky, annoying creatures that buzz around our heads and food are excellent pollinators.

Unknown fly nectaring on Hamamelis vernalis

I've been hoping to capture at least one photo of a winter pollinator visiting the Hamamelis vernalis at Clay and Limestone. It's been my quest to discover if there is a specialized pollinator. What a surprise to see flies! Not anything special either. They look like, your regular old houseflies, too. But, there they were on a warm February day, nectaring on (and hopefully carrying a bit of pollen to the next flower) the only blooming plants in my garden~the native witch hazels.

True Flies only have two wings

Dipteras, the two winged insect group named by Aristotle, is large~with over 140,000 species world wide! Although, many members of this group are real pests (gnats midges and mosquitoes), many have ecological and human (medical and economic) importance.* Entomologists can and do spend their entire careers studying one or two families! For today's post, we'll just take a superficial look at those critters most likely to visit our gardens! (Forgive me, please, but, I do have to use the word maggot!)

Hover Fly on Gaura

Flies~have a holometabolous life cycle. Which means they have complete metamorphism from egg to larvae/maggot to adult. They live in water, soil, plants, the sea, streams, lake, rivers, animals and even other insects. They are opportunists and will eat almost anything. That's one of the reasons they are SO important for our gardens...their voracious appetites!

Flower Fly on monarda

My favorite fly pollinators are the Syrphid Flies. I know you've noticed them. They are those beautifully patterned critters that we see hovering and darting about the garden. They're known as Flower Flies in the US and Hover Flies in the UK. They're stingless bee and wasp mimics, so, you don't need to be afraid of them. They are excellent pollinators and their larval stage is equally important. They eat aphids, scale and other soft bodied garden pests! If you see Hover Flies hovering and darting about~look nearby for their larvae. (I know, there's that word again!)

Look for their white, oval eggs, singly or in groups on leaves. They'll hatch into green, yellow, brown, orange, or white half-inch maggots that look like caterpillars. You might even see them raised up on their hind legs in order to catch and feed on aphids, mealybugs and even some beneficial bugs.

They are beautiful creatures and I am always excited to find them hovering and darting about. Their presence assures me that the garden has a good mixture of plants to attract them and other beneficial insects.

One pair of wings and a honeybee mimic

To attract them to our gardens we can plant a variety of annual, herbs and native perennials. Achilleas, asters, dill, lemon balm, spearmints, monardas, penstemons, veronicas, zinnias, thymes, sedums, sweet alyssums, fennels, buckwheat, and lavenders are just a few of the many plants you can choose to make your garden a haven for all pollinators. (source and list of flowers to plant).

But, back to flies!

Generally speaking~flowers that are pollinated by flies and gnats have similar characteristics. The arum (below) is a perfect example of a flower that has evolved specifically to attract them. Its rotting flesh 'fragrance' was wafting across the David-Peece garden during our Austin Spring Fling visit in 2008.

This arum smells like rotting flesh to attract its pollinator flies and beetles!

Characteristics of fly attractive flowers are generally~

• Pale and dull to dark brown or purple
• Sometimes flecked with translucent patches
• Putrid order, like rotting meat, carrion, dung, humus, sap and blood
• Nectar guides not present
• Produce pollen
• Flowers are funnel like or complex traps (source)

True flies on fall blooming Crocus speciosus

Personally, I'll pass on the exotic and smelly fly magnets! Houseflies, Green Bottle Flies and even Blow Flies are welcome to stop by for a bit of nectar and to pollinate the winter blooming hamamelis. I'll continue to plant for all visiting pollinators~I pinky swear: to plant a diversity of flowers that bloom from early spring to late fall; to provide water; to leave a bit of bare ground; to plant natives and species when I can; and, to never, ever, ever, use pesticides.

xxoogail

This post is part of a series on native pollinators in the garden~ Earlier posts and their links are listed below for your convenience.

Part I~Now Is The Time To Bee-gin Thinking About Bees ( here)
This Is The Place To Bee ( here)
If You Could Plant Only One Plant In Your Garden~Don't (here)
Must Bee The Season of The Witch (here)
Go Bare In Your Garden (here)

Other bee posts you might want to read~
Count Yourself Lucky To Have Hoverflies (here)
Bumblebee Hotel (here)
Still Taking Care Of Bzzness (here)
My Sweet Embraceable You (here)

*Oh my~Blowflies are important in forensic science; their maggots are being used in medical research on wounds; and, they've also been introduced in a greenhouse experiment to see how well they can actually pollinate.

This post was written by Gail Eichelberger for my blog Clay and Limestone Copyright 2011.This work protected under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Please contact me for permission to copy, reproduce, scrape, etc.