Smilax anceps
Smilax anceps is a vigorous climbing plant in the Smilax genus, one of about 278 species in the Smilacaceae family. It is widespread in Tropical and Southern Africa and on islands such as Réunion, Mauritius, the Comoros, and Madagascar. The specific name anceps comes from Latin and means dangerous, a nod to its numerous hooked prickles.
The plant has tough stems up to 5 meters long, armed with many hooked prickles and two coiled tendrils at the bases of the leaf stalks. Leaves are alternate, simple and leathery, shaped from ovate to elliptical or nearly circular, 4–14 cm long. The leaf stalks (petioles) are 0.5–2.5 cm long, thickened and channelled on the upper side.
Inflorescences are many-flowered axillary globose umbels, with stalks about 3 cm long and two bracts near the middle. Flowers within the same inflorescence are unisexual; the perianth segments are 3–5 mm long, recurved, and range in color from greenish-white to yellowish or brownish. The fruit is a round berry, 8–10 mm in diameter, turning red to purplish to black as it ripens, with a slightly sweet and tart taste.
A hemipteran insect, Tarundia cinctipennis Stål (1862), is associated with this plant. Smilax anceps was first described in 1806 by Carl Ludwig von Willdenow in Species Plantarum.
Historically, it has been known by several other names, including Smilax herbacea Thunberg (1808) and S. semiamplexicaulis Bojer (1837), among others.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 13:49 (CET).