Smilax herbacea (Smooth carrion flower)

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Smilax herbacea L.

Smooth carrion flower, carrion vine, herbaceous carrion flower, smooth herbaceous greenbrier, herbaceou

Kingdom	Plantae	Plants, but not fungi, lichens, or algae
Subkingdom	Tracheobionta	Vascular plants—plants with a “circulatory system” for delivering water and nutrients
Division	Magnoliophyta	Flowering plants, also known as angiosperms
Class	Liliopsida	Monocots (plants with a single seed leaf); includes the lily family
Subclass	Liliidae	Includes lilies, orchids, and many others
Order	Liliales	Includes lilies, tulips, trilliums, greenbriars, and others
Family	Smilacaceae	Greenbriar family
Genus	Smilax	Greek for “clasping”
Species	herbacea	“Herbaceous,” vs. woody

About plant names...

Smooth carrion flowers are North American natives.

Identification: Smooth carrion flower has a number of striking characteristics, so you aren't likely to confuse it with other plants. It is a vine, up to 10' (3 m) long, with curling tendrils that grasp nearby plants. It has a smooth, pale green stem; most vines have woody stems. It has egg-shaped alternate leaves up to 3½" (8.9 cm) long, with smooth edges and shiny surfaces. If it is flowering, the flowers are arranged in ball-shaped clusters. The individual 6-petalled flowers are ½" (1.3 cm) across, and green. Usually flowers stand out, so green is a very uncommon color, but these flowers have another way of attracting their pollinators: they smell like carrion. Female flower clusters form tight green balls; while male clusters are looser, the individual flowers a bit spider-like in appearance, with tiny white stamens. Fruits are tight round balls of dark blue berries, each berry about ⅜" (1 cm) in diameter.

Edibility: The leaves and young shoots may be eaten raw or boiled for 15 minutes like asparagus. The roots, properly processed, yield a gelatin-like extract.

Online References:

Ontario Wildflowers

The Connecticut Botanical Society's Connecticut wildflowers site

Illinois Wildflowers

EFloras

Plants for a Future, a resource and information centre for edible and otherwise useful plants

References:

Peterson, Lee Allen, Peterson Field Guides: Edible Wild Plants of Eastern/Central North America, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1977, p. 148