An evergreen climber growing 15 to 20 ft high; young shoots grey, angled, armed with irregularly scattered, stout spines up to 1⁄2 in. long and furnished with tendrils proceeding from the much thickened leaf-stalk. Leaves very variable in size and shape, the largest broadly ovate, rounded at the base, 9 in. long by 6 in. wide, the smaller ones are lanceolate to narrowly oval, tapered at the base, some of them only 31⁄2 in. long by 1 in. wide; all are of leathery texture, pointed, dark glossy green above, glaucous beneath, conspicuously three-nerved; leaf-stalk 1⁄2 to 1 in. long. Flowers (described by Wilson as greenish) produced from the leaf-axils of small young leaves on short branches in corymbose umbels; the perianth of the male flower has six slenderly pointed lobes; stamens six. Fruits globose, nearly 1⁄2 in. wide, coral-red, often one-seeded, borne in umbels over 2 in. across; main-stalk 1 in. long; individual stalks 1⁄2 to 3⁄4 in. long.
Native of Hupeh, W. Szechwan, and Yunnan, China; originally collected by A. E. Pratt and E. Faber; the latter found it on Mt. Omei. It was introduced to cultivation by Wilson in 1907. This fine smilax – in foliage the most remarkable of all the species that succeed in our average climate – has grown vigorously without any protection at Kew since its introduction, in good loamy soil. It is perfectly hardy. Its unusually large fruits are very handsome, but even if it failed to produce them it is well worth cultivating as an evergreen foliage plant. Propagated, like the rest, by division.