Greenbrier Traditional Cache

Is this really Greenbrier? I didn't notice any thorns, and the leaves aren't round, but it sure looks like it to me. My guess is that it is Common Greenbrier, Salix rotundifolia.

Please BYOP and check for more specific cache info at the bottom of the page

Greenbrier

Smilax is a genus of about 300–350 species, found in the tropics and subtropics worldwide.In China for example about 80 are found (39 of which are endemic), while there are 20 in North America north of Mexico.

They are climbing flowering plants, many of which are woody and/or thorny, in the monocotyledon family Smilacaceae, native throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Common names include catbriers, greenbriers, prickly-ivys and smilaxes. "Sarsaparilla" (also zarzaparrilla, sarsparilla) is a name used specifically for the Jamaican S.regelii as well as a catch-all term in particular for American species. 

Greenbriers get their scientific name from the Greek myth of Crocus and the nymph Smilax. Though this myth has numerous forms, it always centers around the unfulfilled and tragic love of a mortal man who is turned into a flower, and a woodland nymph who is transformed into a brambly vine.

On their own, Smilax plants will grow as shrubs, forming dense impenetrable thickets. They will also grow over trees and other plants up to 10 m high, their hooked thorns allowing them to hang onto and scramble over branches. The genus includes both deciduous and evergreen species. The leaves are heart shaped and vary from 4–30 cm long in different species.

Greenbrier is dioecious. However, only about one in three colonies have plants of both sexes.

Plants flower in May and June with white/green clustered flowers. If pollination occurs, the plant will produce a bright red to blue-black spherical berry fruit about 5–10 mm in diameter that matures in the fall.

The berry is rubbery in texture and has a large, spherical seed in the center. The fruit stays intact through winter, when birds and other animals eat them to survive. The seeds are passed unharmed in the animal's droppings. Since many Smilax colonies are single clones that have spread by rhizomes, both sexes may not be present at a site, in which case no fruit is formed.

Smilax is a very damage-tolerant plant capable of growing back from its rhizomes after being cut down or burned down by fire. This, coupled with the fact that birds and other small animals spread the seeds over large areas, makes the plants very hard to get rid of. It grows best in moist woodlands with a soil pH between 5 and 6. The seeds have the greatest chance of germinating after being exposed to a freeze.

Besides their berries providing an important food for birds and other animals during the winter, greenbrier plants also provide shelter for many other animals. The thorny thickets can effectively protect small animals from larger predators who cannot enter the prickly tangle. Deer and other herbivorous mammals will eat the foliage, as will some invertebrates such as Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths), which also often drink nectar from the flowers.

Smilax rotundifolia, known as roundleaf greenbrier and common greenbrier, is a woody vine native to the eastern and south-central united States and to eastern Canada. It is a common and conspicuous part of the natural forest ecosystems in much of its native range. The leaves are glossy green, petioled, alternate, and circular to heart-shaped. They are generally 5–13 cm long. Common greenbrier climbs other plants using green tendrils growing out of the petioles. The stems are round and green and have sharp spines. The flowers are greenish, and are produced from April to August. The fruit is a bluish black berry that ripens in September.

Common greenbrier grows in roadsides, landscapes, clearings and woods. In clearings it often forms dense and impassable thickets. It grows throughout Eastern North America from Nova Scotia in the east, to as far north as Ontario and Kansas, south to Florida and as far west as Texas.

The young shoots of common greenbrier are reported to be excellent when cooked like asparagus. The young leaves and tendrils can be prepared like spinach or added directly to salads.The roots have a natural gelling agent in them that can be extracted and used as a thickening agent.

The cache is a tied in, camoed, "small" pill bottle, that you have to puch hard to open and close. Please make sure it's sealed tightly when you're done. It holds only a rolled log with a rubber band in a tiny plastic zip lock bag, that needs to be zipped tightly to keep the log dry. There's probably room for small SWAG. Please BYOP and no tweezers.