6. Smilax lasioneuron Hook. (carrion flower)

Pl. 192 e; Map 786

S. herbacea L. var. lasioneura (Hook.) A. DC.

Aerial stems annual, 1.5–2.5 m long, herbaceous, climbing at maturity, lacking prickles or bristles. Leaves usually more than 25 per aerial stem, 3–19 cm long. Petioles shorter than to slightly longer than the leaf blades, nearly all with tendrils. Leaf blades narrowly to broadly ovate, the tips rounded to attenuate, sometimes cuspidate, the bases truncate to shallowly cordate, the margins not thickened, smooth or with scattered, minute, toothlike projections, the undersurface paler than the upper surface, light green or grayish green, not shiny, the veins sparsely to densely pubescent with minute, white, flattened hairs, the network of smaller veins not thickened. Inflorescences arising from the axils of the middle and upper foliage leaves, the peduncle 1–5 times as long as the petiole of the subtending leaf. Umbels mostly with 25–110 flowers. Fruits 8–10 mm in diameter, dark blue, glaucous. 2n=26. May–June.

Scattered nearly throughout Missouri except in the Mississippi Lowlands of the Bootheel (eastern U.S. west to Montana and Oklahoma). Mesic forests and rocky stream banks, frequently climbing in thickets, less commonly margins of lakes and railroads.