Smilax glabra Roxb.

The tuberlike rhizomes are used medicinally.

Vines climbing, unarmed. Stem branched, terete, 1--4 m, woody, smooth. Petiole 5--15(--30) cm, narrowly winged for 1/4--3/5 its length; abscission zone apical; tendrils well developed. Leaf blade elliptic- or ovate-lanceolate, 6--15 × 1--7 cm. Inflorescence of 1 umbel, basally not prophyllate; peduncle 1--5(--8) mm, strikingly shorter than petiole; umbels of both sexes 10--30(--60)-flowered, base thickened; bracteoles many. Male flowers: perianth greenish white, slightly 6-angled, scarcely open; outer tepals broadly obovate-orbicular, cucullate, ca. 2 × 3 mm, abaxially deeply channeled, inner ones ca. 1 mm wide, margin irregularly denticulate. Female flowers: inner tepals entire at margin; staminodes 3. Berries blue-black, 6--10 mm in diam., white powdery. Fl. Jul--Nov, fr. Nov--Apr.

Anhui, Fujian, S Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, ?S Shaanxi (Qin Ling), Sichuan, Taiwan, Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang [India, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam].

Forests, thickets, thinly forested slopes along valleys, river banks; 300--1800 m.

Smilax blinii H. Léveillé; S. calophylla Wallich var. concolor C. H. Wright; S. dunniana H. Léveillé; S. glabra var. maculata Bodinier ex H. Léveillé; S. hookeri Kunth; S. mengmaensis R. H. Miao; S. trigona Warburg.