Saw greenbrier

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Saw greenbrier stem and prickles

Saw greenbrier bud

Saw greenbrier staminate flowers

Saw greenbrier leaf

Saw greenbrier stem and prickles

Saw greenbrier

Saw greenbrier prickles

Saw greenbrier leaves

Saw greenbrier leaves

Morphology

Trunk

Dioecious; stems climbing; branches terete to 4-angled, armed, prickles green, sometimes black at apex, flattened, rigid, .16 to .5 inch, tendrils present; bark green, smooth; wood greenish white, soft.

Twigs

Green, flexible, glabrous or older ones sometimes with stellate hairs, sharply angled, with few or no prickles; buds hidden by leaf bases, green, conic, .08 to .12 inch, apex acute.

Leaves

Deciduous, sometimes tardily so, alternate, simple; stipules adnate to petiole proximally, distal ends free as tendrils; petiole .28 to .6 inch; blade ovate to arrowhead-shaped or fiddle-shaped, 1.2 to 4 inches long, 1.2 to 3.2 inches wide, 3(-5) main veins arising from petiole, base cordate to truncate, margins entire, thickened, sometimes spinose-ciliate, apex rounded to short-apiculate, surfaces light green, sometimes with white blotches, lower surface glabrous or minutely pubescent, sometimes with scattered prickles along major veins, upper surface glabrous.

Flowers

Inflorescences axillary, umbels, 10-45-flowered; peduncles .6 to 2.4 inches; pedicels .16 to .3 inch. Flowers unisexual, radially symmetric; tepals 6, distinct; corolla pale green, .12 to .18 inch, oblong, apex obtuse; staminate: stamens 5-6; pistillate: staminodes present; pistil 1, ovary superior, 2-locular.

Fruit

September-October; berries, black, globose, .24 to .3 inch diam., fleshy, glabrous; seed 1, dark red, globose to ellipsoid, ca. .16 inch diam., pitted, attachment scar black.

Ecology

Habitat

Floodplain and upland forests and woodlands, thickets, stream banks, fencerows.

Distribution

Southeast corner of Kansas

Additional Notes