Native Plants
Q. Who is Mr. Smarty Plants?
A: There are those who suspect Wildflower Center volunteers are the culpable and capable culprits. Yet, others think staff members play some, albeit small, role. You can torture us with your plant questions, but we will never reveal the Green Guru's secret identity.
Did you know you can access the Native Plant Information Network with your web-enabled smartphone?
Ask Mr. Smarty Plants
Ask Mr. Smarty Plants is a free service provided by the staff and volunteers at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.
rate this answer
Monday - May 06, 2013
From: Pensacola, FL
Region: Southeast
Topic: Plant Lists, Vines
Title: What thorny vine grows rapidly in Pensacola?
Answered by: Jimmy Mills
QUESTION:
What thorny vine grows rapidly in Pensacola?ANSWER:
Cat briar Smilax bona-nox (Saw greenbrier) comes to mind, but technically, its a prickly vine. To look for others, lets go to our Native Plants Database and do a Combination Search. Select Florida under State, vine under General Appearance, and perennial under Lifespan. Check both part shade and shade under Light Requirement, and both dry and moist under Soil Moisture. Click the Submit Combination Search button, and you will get a list of 27 native plants that meet these criteria. Clicking on the scientific name of each plant will bring up its NPIN page which contains a description of the plant along with growth characteristics and requirements, and in most cases images. We find that only the two species of Smilax mention spines.
This link to floridanature.com/vines gives us a list of vines found in Florida . We see another species of Smilax plus a species of Mimosa, but it doesn’t occur in Pensacola. So it looks like we have three possibilities, however we were only looking at native plants.
I hope this is helpful.
More Vines Questions
cultivating the invasive Passiflora incense
July 16, 2014 - Hello! I have been collecting passiflora for a while now, recently I purchased a "P. Incarnata" from a local nursery where I have gotten a few other species to grow along my herb garden recently. No...
view the full question and answer
Plant with dark black/purple berries in a cluster
November 06, 2012 - Today at our local dog park we noticed a bush/vine that's been growing up the fence is producing berries. It didn't flower at all. The berries look to have started out green and now are changing t...
view the full question and answer
Native vines to cover limestone walls in Austin
April 28, 2008 - We are moving into a house in Austin that has three tiered 5'- 6' retaining walls in the back yard. They are huge and somewhat of an eye sore. We have some cool landscaping ideas to make the most ...
view the full question and answer
Promoting bloom of crossvine
January 05, 2008 - I planted a crossvine a couple of years ago and it has grown quite well, climbing well up the Mesquite tree it was planted under. However, it has never bloomed. I was really looking forward to those...
view the full question and answer
Blossoms but no fruit for gooseberries in Enoch UT
January 16, 2010 - My gooseberries always get loads of blossoms, but I never get fruit. I think they need more sun, and thus, want to transplant them to a sunnier location. What (and when) is the best way to do this?
view the full question and answer
| Support the Wildflower Center by Donating Online or Becoming a Member today. |