Smilacaceae
-
Authority
Britton, Nathaniel L. & Millspaugh, Charles F. 1920. The Bahama Flora.
-
Family
Smilacaceae
-
Scientific Name
-
Description
Description - Mostly vines with woody or herbaceous, often prickly stems. Leaves alternate, netted-veined, several-nerved, petioled. Petiole sheathing, bearing a pair of slender tendril-like appendages, persistent, the blade falling away. Flowers small, mostly green, dioecious, in axillary umbels. Perianth-segments 6. Stamens mostly 6, distinct; filaments ligulate; anthers basifixed, 2-celled, introrse. Ovary 3-celled, the cavities opposite the inner perianth-segments; ovules 1 or 2 in each cavity, orthotropous; style very short or none; stigmas 1-3. Fruit a globose berry containing 1-6 brownish seeds. Endosperm horny, copious; embryo small, oblong, remote from the hilum. Genera 3, only the following in North America; species about 230, in warm and temperate regions.