Spermatophyta: Monocotyledonae: Liliales

Smilacaceae - Smilax family

Diniz, M.A. (2009) Smilacaceae Flora Zambesiaca 12(2)

Obermeyer, A.A. (1992) Smilacaceae Flora of Southern Africa 5(3)

Description of the family

Climbing shrubs with tough perennial prickly stems. Leaves alternate with a pair of tendrils near base of petiole; lamina with 3-5 strong veins. Flowers unisexual, actinomorphic in axillary umbels. Tepals in 2 whorls of 3, free, petaloid. Male flowers with 6 free stamens;ovary 0. Female flowers with 6 staminodes; ovary 3-locular; style 0 or short. Fruit a berry with 1-3 spherical seeds.

Worldwide: 3 genera and 320 species in tropical and warm areas.

Zambia: 1 genus and 2 taxa.

No image yet

Links to genera: View: living plant images - herbarium specimen images - all images for this family

Genus	Content
Smilax L.	Description

Other sources of information about Smilacaceae:

Our websites:

Flora of Burundi: Smilacaceae
Flora of the DRC: Smilacaceae
Flora of Malawi: Smilacaceae
Flora of Mozambique: Smilacaceae
Flora of Rwanda: Smilacaceae
Flora of Zimbabwe: Smilacaceae

External websites:

African Plants: A Photo Guide (Senckenberg): Smilacaceae
BHL (Biodiversity Heritage Library): Smilacaceae
EOL (Encyclopedia of Life): Smilacaceae
GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility): Smilacaceae
Google: Web - Images - Scholar
iNaturalist: Smilacaceae
IPNI (International Plant Names Index): Smilacaceae
JSTOR Plant Science: Smilacaceae
Mansfeld World Database of Agricultural and Horticultural Crops: Smilacaceae
Wikipedia: Smilacaceae
Plants of the World Online: Smilacaceae
Tropicos: Smilacaceae

Copyright: Mike Bingham, Annette Willemen, Nicholas Wightman, Bart Wursten, Petra Ballings and Mark Hyde, 2011-25

Bingham, M.G., Willemen, A., Wightman, N., Wursten, B.T., Ballings, P. and Hyde, M.A. (2025). Flora of Zambia: Family page: Smilacaceae.
https://www.zambiaflora.com/speciesdata/family.php?family_id=210, retrieved 16 May 2025

Site software last modified: 11 February 2025 4:43pm (GMT +2)
Terms of use