Date Photo Taken: October 15, 2011
Location: Smyrna, GA
Posted By: ChrsHnn
Notes:
This is about 2 feet tall in the woods near Silver Comet Trail. What caught my eye is the 3 green rings at intervals up the shaft. No leaves on it. Hopefully it’s not just a random weed. Odd plant that I’ve never seen before.
stone Unregistered says:
It looks like smilax.
There is a slim chance that it could be Aralia spinosa, after losing it’s leaves… Only way to be sure is to dig it up, or post additional pics.
Smilax is called “potatoe vine”, for a reason.
Aralia has a beautiful leaf structute, purdy flowers, that atract butterflies… and tends to sucker like sumac.
With those thorns… either one can be bad news…
If smilax, you might appreciate knowing that the tender stalks are edible, sorta like asparagus.
October 19th, 2011 at 12:20 pmChrsHnn Registered says:
Wow. Great call. This website has a picture that matches it exactly (about half way down the page)
http://www.duke.edu/~cwcook/trees/arsp.html
Outstanding! Thanks!
October 19th, 2011 at 9:39 pmlynda Unregistered says:
It is very aggressive and tends to take over. I had it at my old house and the thorns get huge.
March 8th, 2012 at 12:23 pm