NC Native Ethnobotany Project
NC Native Ethnobotany Project
Building Healthier Communities Through Healthier Living
Bamboo Briar
Scientific Name: Smilax sp.
Family: Smilaceae
Other names: Greenbrier, Horsebrier, Bullbrier
Cautions: Do not confuse with Toxicodendron sp.
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Herbarium Image: Coming Soon
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Description
Native, perennial, climbing vine with thorny stems and pinnately netted leaves. Female plants produce fruit with green berries in clusters of four which ripen from red to black.
Traditional Medicinal Use
Bamboo briar is not used among local tribes for medicine, but the woodly vein is used to make smoking pipes, by the Haliwa-Saponi. Other tribes, such as the Cherokee used the plant to treat small pox and as a wash for various skin
conditions (1).
Nutrition
The rhizomes and shoots are edible. Sarsaparillia was traditionally made from the rhizomes of
S. asper mixed with sassafras (2).
References
1. Hamel, P. and Chiltoskey, M. Cherokee Plants and Their Uses -- A 400 Year History. 1975, Sylva, N.C.: Herald Publishing Co.
2. Smilax asper L. (Smilacaceae). 2018; Available from: https://herbaria.plants.ox.ac.uk/bol/plants400/Profiles/ST/Smilax.