Japanese name: サルトリイバラ（猿捕茨、菝葜） Scientific name:Smilax china var. china
[Overview]
A semi-evergreen climbing subshrub found at the edges of forests in low mountains and in pine woods on dry ridges.
It has a thick rhizome.
The stem is green and hard, with strong thorns, and bends in a zigzag at each node.
Vigorous branches grow straight and reach a length of 3 m or more.
The stems die back every 2–3 years and are replaced by new stems.
Leaves are simple and alternate, ovate-orbicular, 3–12 cm long, thick, glossy on the upper surface, with 3–5 conspicuous veins.
The leaf margin is entire.
The petiole has a pair of long tendrils, modified stipules, which twine around other objects.
The leaves turn yellow in autumn.
It is dioecious.
Both male and female flowers are borne in large numbers in umbels arising from the leaf axils, and are pale yellowish-green with 6 tepals.
The fruit is a spherical berry 7–9 cm in diameter, ripening red.
[Uses]
Branches bearing fruit are used as cut flowers.
The rhizome is used medicinally.
In western Japan, the leaves are used to wrap rice cakes in place of oak leaves.
Mature leaves can be used as a substitute for tea.
