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Smilax australis
Also called Barbed Wire Vine, Lawyer Vine, Wait A While
Austral sarsaparilla is a prickly, climbing native vine from eastern and northern Australia, found in rainforest and woodland edges. It is grown mainly for ornamental or habitat planting and needs a sturdy support to climb.
Smilax australis (lawyer vine, austral sarsaparilla, barbwire vine, or "wait-a-while") is a vine in the family Smilacaceae, endemic to Australia. It has prickly climbing stems that are up to 8 metres long with coiled tendrils that are up to 20 cm long. The glossy leaves have 5 prominent longitudinal veins and are 5 to 15 cm long and 3 to 10 cm wide.
The species occurs in rainforest, sclerophyll forest, woodland and heathland in the Northern Territory, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Lord Howe Island, and the northeastern corner of Western Australia.
Sarsaparilla · Chinese Smilax · Smilax glyciphylla · Laurel greenbrier · Smilax moranensis · Smilax officinalis · Jamaica sarsaparilla · Roundleaf greenbrier · Greenbrier
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Smilax australis by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
Pet safety from the ASPCA toxic and non-toxic plant lists.
