Page 18 - St Giles Catesby booklet MC StG 20210723 e-flip_Neat

Laurel greenbrier
This evergeren, woody vine – Catesby
called it "the bay-leaved Smilax" – grows
widely in the southeastern USA and also
occurs on the Bahama Islands. It inhabits
swamps, bogs and marshy places,
scrambling through associated
vegetation. The flowers are small and
greenish so are not conspicuous, and
Mark Catesby, 1729. The natural history of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama islands, they are followed, on the female plants,
volume 1, plate 15. by clusters of black berries. Catesby
observed that the laurel greenbrier fruits
Bluejay (Cyanocritta cristata)
with laurel greenbrier in fruit (Smilax laurifolia) were a particular favourite of bluejays,
and he depicted (below) one of the birds
perched on the plant. This is one of the
most familiar and reproduced of
Catesby's hand-coloured engravings.