Sarsaparilla Greenbrier

Sarsaparilla greenbrier (Smilax aspera, the ushba of herbal traders) is a prickly evergreen scrambler that colonises hedgerows and forest edges in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa hills and across Pothohar. It is armed with sharp hooks, evergreen, and quick to cover broken ground, recorded in the Flora of Pakistan as a shrubby climber found through the region.¹ For a grower it is a tough pioneer climber for rough edges — one that pays back in medicinal root and edible young shoots.

Where it thrives

Smilax aspera ranges from southern Europe through Asia into Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, China, and Myanmar, and in Pakistan it is documented as a shrubby climber with hooked, spiny branches.¹ Across its range it inhabits scrub, oak-forest margins, and hedgerows from sea level to about 1,200 m, climbing over other shrubs and small trees on a wide range of well-drained soils.² That suits the scrubby hill edges of KPK and Pothohar. As an evergreen scrambler it holds its leaves year-round and hauls itself up on hooked stems rather than tendrils.

Role in the system

This is a pioneer climber for the rough margins of a planting. It moves quickly into hedgerows and forest edges, throwing an armed, evergreen cover over disturbed ground — the kind of thorny scrambler that protects a young boundary and discourages browsing animals from pushing through. Its dense, hooked growth makes it a living barrier as much as a crop, while it draws medicinal value up from a tough root system. In a guild it occupies the edge nobody else wants and turns it into useful structure.

Harvest

Two harvests come off the same plant. The young shoots are gathered and eaten like wild asparagus, a traditional spring food, so cut them while they are tender.² The roots and rhizomes are the medicinal part, used since antiquity for sarsaparilla-flavoured drinks and herbal preparations, and are lifted for that purpose.² The fruit is a small berry, about 5 mm across, that ripens from red to blue-black and is useful mainly as wildlife forage.¹ In the Flora of Pakistan its white, fragrant flowers are recorded from September to March and the berries from May to August, so the plant is productive across a long stretch of the year rather than a single short season.¹

What you get

Edible spring shoots and a medicinal root from a self-reliant climber. The root and rhizome are used as alterative, demulcent, depurative, diaphoretic, diuretic, stimulant, and tonic in traditional medicine, giving the plant a long pharmacological record under the sarsaparilla name.² Add the thorny, evergreen barrier it forms and it earns its place on a rough edge several ways over.

Cautions

The stems and leaf midribs carry sharp hooks, so site it away from paths and handle it with gloves; it is built to catch and hold. Its vigour and prickly habit mean it can overrun a tidy area, so keep it to the boundary where its barrier value is an asset.

Sources

1. Flora of Pakistan. “Smilax aspera.” eFloras.org.
2. Useful Tropical Plants. “Smilax aspera.” Useful Tropical Plants Database.