This stuff is driving me nuts!! I have dug and dug and dug got out all the tubers (so I thought) and they are back!!
This message was edited Jun 22, 2009 12:28 AM
Anyone had experience with Smilax ??
Is this the thing that makes the wiry vines with stickers?
I think it is. My dad used to dig them up and they were sometimes quite deep. I thought too, though, that if you went to that trouble that you were home free. Sorry tcinmb. I guess I won't try it. I just keep cutting the stems off - which the plants laughs at, and puts out two stems. Smilax, as I'm sure you've learned, also is not affected by Round-up and friends.
my sister battles that in Florida
I have some of what looks like those in my beds here in Illinois. It's prickly & I usually try to cut them off as they are among my hosta & haven't tried digging them.
Jan in Cental Illinois
my DH got some Brush killer to use on poison ivy and has sprayed it on the greenbriar /simlax and it has killed it off but there is so much of it around here it's like a never ending battle.
He dug some up once too and one of the neighbors told him it is used for some kind of pvc pipes?
not sure don't really care just don't like the stuff LOL
Ubiquitous here on my land in north peninsular Florida, and apparently native. The strength of the vines is pretty astounding: materials scientists really should study them and see why and how it might be duplicated in artificial materials. They aren't that hard to cut, but they don't break readily.
Mostly I cut and mow and try to crowd out. The leaves are quite pretty in some varieties, and people supposedly plant those as ornamentals -- no thanks! And those thorns! Those who had to read the Canterbury Tales for school might recall the phrase "the smiler with the knife beneath the cloak"; this is The Smilax With The Knives.
The leaves are waxy, so Roundup doesn't stick to them too well. A drop of detergent in the mix will help the Roundup stick to the leaves. The tubers in the photos are huge! The plants must have been there for many years. Repeated applications of Roundup will eventually kill them. So will cutting off the tops until all the food stored in the tubers is used up. But the best bet is to dig up the tubers.
u call it smilax- i thot it was a potato vine- woodbind my grandad called it
ty, more to study
You can eat it to.
Have you ever eaten any? Are they good?
No they are not very good.But the native americans ate the young shoots and roots.I tried the shoots steamed.
My property borders some woods, and I have been battling 3 species of Smilax for 5 years. I've now given up and learned to live with it. It must have been the blueprint for barbed wire...
One of the species has a new shoot that is bigger than the others, and this larger one tastes great raw. It is hard to find it, though, before the deer get to it.
Ive just discovered that this is whats now (just this year) running amuck at the tree line in my back yard. if its native... then how can it invade the tree line so? seems more invasive to me.
Ive also researched and found it to be a Florida native attractive to butterflies and bees.. so, should I leave it alone? Does the fact that its listed as a native plant make a difference to whetehr or not its invasive??
Technically, native plants can't be "invasive species," by definition (acc. to the federal government anyway). Also, as a general rule, native plants don't behave invasively in the sense of displacing all other species and creating an unchecked monoculture, because they have evolved as a part of diverse ecosystems. That having been said, they can be "garden-invasive" in the sense of spreading rapidly to unwanted areas, being difficult to remove, etc. Native species will tend to be persistent & exuberant when growing in the conditions to which they are best suited. In my area, examples of "aggressive" native species include Canada goldenrod, poison ivy, and obedient plant.