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Smilax ornata
Jamaica sarsaparilla (Smilax ornata) is a prickly-stemmed perennial climbing vine from Mexico and Central America, grown for its vigorous trailing or climbing growth. It does best with warm, humid conditions and bright indirect light.
Smilax ornata is a perennial trailing vine with prickly stems that is native to Mexico and Central America. Common names include sarsaparilla, Honduran sarsaparilla, and Jamaican sarsaparilla.
It is known in Spanish as zarzaparrilla, which is derived from the words zarza meaning "bramble" (from Basque sartzia "bramble"), and parrilla, meaning "little grape vine".
Sarsaparilla · Austral Sarsaparilla · Chinese Smilax · Smilax glyciphylla · Laurel greenbrier · Smilax moranensis · Smilax officinalis · Roundleaf greenbrier · Greenbrier
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Smilax ornata 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.
