Climbing Vines

Green-brier Family - Smilacaceae

Common Smilax Smilax aspera

Native from Macaronesia, through the mediterranean Region to southern Asia and East Africa. Stems slender and with few thorns in wooded situations, but on heavily grazed areas, they become densely thorny and more or less leafless.


Leaves	Leaf	Leaf	Leaf

Flowers	Fruit	Fruit	Grazed stems

Yam Family - Dioscoreaceae

Black Bryony Dioscorea communis

Native from Macaronesia and the British Isles eastwards and south to Iran. Male and female flowers on separate plants, with only female plants producing berries in the autumn.


Habit	Habit	Male flower	Female flowers

Male flowers	Leaves	Fruits	Fruits

Vine Family - Vitaceae

Common Grape-vine Vitis vinifera

Probably native through the Mediterranean Region to Central Asia but long in cultivation and widely planted to produce grapes for eating and for wine-making. Although Common Grape-vine is included here, in reality, most cultivated forms are hybrids of this and a range of North American species that were introduced to combat a variety of pests and diseases, to which the American species proved more resistant. Wild grape-vines typically occur in scrubby woodland along field margins and rocky gullies.