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Smilax officinalis is a tropical climbing vine from Central and northwest South America that can reach 50 m up trees. Its roots are the part harvested for traditional medicine and sarsaparilla flavouring, and it is not a typical garden or houseplant.
Smilax officinalis is a species of flowering plant in the family Smilacaceae, native to southern Central America and northwest South America; Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, and Ecuador. A vine reaching 50 m (160 ft) as it climbs trees into the canopy, its roots are collected and used to make traditional medicines and, like other Smilax species, the soft drink sarsaparilla.
Sarsaparilla · Austral Sarsaparilla · Chinese Smilax · Smilax glyciphylla · Laurel greenbrier · Smilax moranensis · Jamaica sarsaparilla · Roundleaf greenbrier · Greenbrier
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Smilax officinalis 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.
