Smilacaceae Vent.

Perennial or (not in Australia) annual twiners, climbers or shrubs with short rhizomes. Roots fibrous or tuberous. Stems smooth or prickly. Leaves simple, opposite or alternate, rarely whorled, sometimes with stipules adnate to petiole and terminating in tendrils; primary veins convergent; secondary venation usually reticulate. Flowers unisexual or bisexual, in terminal or axillary spikes, racemes, cymes, panicles or umbels, rarely solitary in leaf axils. Sepals 3, free or fused at base. Petals 3, similar to sepals or sometimes fringed. Stamens 6, or (not in Australia) 3 or 9; filaments free or fused at base; anthers unilocular or bilocular, basifixed, dehiscing by slits or pores, introrse, extrorse or latrorse. Ovary superior or inferior, 1–3-locular; ovules 1 to many per locule, placentation axile or parietal; style filamentous or short and thick or sometimes absent; stigma capitate or minutely 3-lobed. Fruit a berry or fleshy capsule. Seeds 1 to many, shiny black or brown, with or without aril. Endosperm starchy or non-starchy.