WHERE’S WILDLIFE • WILDFLOWER FIELD GUIDE

Blue Ridge Carrionflower

Smilax lasioneura

Pronunciation: SMY-laks lass-ee-oh-NUR-ah

A native herbaceous vine with curling tendrils, broad alternate leaves and rounded clusters of small green flowers. Also called Midwestern Carrionflower.

Green flowers in rounded clusters, broad leaves and curling tendrils.

NATIVE • HERBACEOUS VINE

At a glance

Family Smilacaceae · greenbrier family
Genus Smilax
Growth Perennial with seasonal climbing or scrambling stems
Stem length Often about 6–8 feet
Bloom Late spring to early summer
Habitat Woods, thickets and woodland borders
Status Native

Sightings map

Observation maps show reported sightings; they do not define the complete native range.

Field photographs

Twelve field photographs show flowers, leaves, tendrils and climbing growth. Select a photograph to enlarge it. Leaf-underside hairs are an important identification feature and may need a closer view than these photographs provide.

How to recognize it

Growth: branching, herbaceous stems climb or scramble with tendrils. The stems lack prickles.

Leaves: alternate, broad and smooth-edged, with several strong veins arching toward the tip. The underside is pale green and finely hairy, especially along the veins.

Flowers: small green flowers radiate from a shared point to form a rounded cluster, called an umbel. Clusters arise on stalks from leaf axils.

Best confirmation: examine the underside of a mature leaf with magnification. Flower clusters alone do not reliably separate this species from Smooth Carrionflower.

Where and when to look

Look along woodland borders and in thickets where stems can lean on nearby vegetation. Follow a stem to see its alternate leaves, branches and curling tendrils.

Flowers appear in late spring and early summer. Later, female plants can carry rounded clusters of blue-black berries.

Range & sightings

Native to a broad part of central and eastern North America, including Wisconsin and Illinois, with occurrences extending into adjacent parts of Canada.

Observation maps show reported sightings, not the complete native range.

Compare other carrionflowers

Blue Ridge Carrionflower

Smilax lasioneura

Smooth Carrion Flower

Smilax herbacea

Upright Carrion Flower

Smilax ecirrhata

Smooth Carrionflower (Smilax herbacea): also a climbing herbaceous vine, but its leaves are hairless beneath. Check a mature leaf underside rather than relying on the green flower clusters.

Upright Carrionflower (Smilax ecirrhata): usually a shorter, upright, unbranched plant without functional climbing tendrils.

Illinois Carrionflower (Smilax illinoensis): also has hairy leaf undersides, but typically has an upright, unbranched stem, long leaf stalks and limited tendrils near the top.

Small flowers, separate male and female plants

Carrionflowers have separate male and female plants. In close views of female flowers, the rounded ovary and spreading stigma lobes can be easier to see than the small green floral parts.

After pollination, female plants develop berries. A flowering plant without berries later in the season may be male, so fruit absence alone is not an identification clue.

Look beyond the flower cluster

Photograph a whole stem, its tendrils, a flower cluster and both sides of a mature leaf. That combination is more useful for separating carrionflower species than another flower close-up alone.

Sources & further reading

Flora of North America: Smilax lasioneura
Keys to the Flora of the Chicago Region: Smilax key
University of Michigan: comparison with Illinois Carrionflower

Keep learning

Explore more species in the guide, then practice recognizing wildflowers in the quiz.

Blue Ridge Carrionflower