Family

Smilax.

Colour

Greenish, with yellow.

Odour

Foul.

Range

General.

Time Of Bloom

April, May.

Flowers: small; imperfect; growing in umbels. Perianth: bell-shaped, of six divisions. Stamens: six. Pistil: one, with three diverging stigmas. Fruit: a blue-black berry; glaucous. Leaves: almost round at the base, pointed at the apex; nerved. Stem: smooth; erect; climbing.

In the season of its bloom the odour of this plant serves to identify it with one of its common names. As the flowers fall, however, it becomes less obnoxious and is one of the first to foretell by its rich, changing colouring the approach of the autumn. Its near relative, S, rotundifolia, is not so partial to moist soil and is well-known along the roadsides and fields.