All plants /Vine /Greenbrier
Greenbrier
Smilax bona-nox, greenbrier family. Abundant in East and Central Texas.
At a glance
- What
- Tender growing shoot tips and tendrils
- How
- Raw like a bean, or cooked as an asparagus
- When
- Spring flush
- Where
- Woods, thickets, fence rows, often a thorny tangle
- Value
- A crisp spring vegetable
Caution: Only the soft new shoot tips are food; the mature thorny vine is not. A safe, well-known trailside vegetable. Never eat a wild plant on this guide's word alone. Confirm identity against several sources and learn the look-alikes first.
Identification
A thorny climbing vine that most people meet by snagging a shirt on it. Follow it to the soft, often reddish new growth at the tips.
In the kitchen
Snap the tender tips off like green beans; they are crisp and mild raw and cook up like asparagus.
Photo: Robert H. Mohlenbrock. USDA SCS. 1991. Southern wetland flor, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Forages well with
Forage safely. Never eat a wild plant on this site's word alone. Confirm identity with several sources, learn the look-alikes, and when in doubt, leave it in the ground.