Sauncho Smilax

Sauncho Smilax

• Sauncho: variant of Sancho (Latin), meaning Saint, Sanctified, Sincere, Truthful.

• All species of Smilax are climbing vines with sharp spiny thorns, forming dense impenetrable, invasive thickets. Common names include catbriers, greenbriers, prickly-ivys, sarsaparilla and smilaxes. The word Smilax derives from the Greek, for "bindweed." Smilax is very resistant to eradication.

• From Greek mythology the nymph Smilax was slighted by the boy Krokos and transformed into the vine. Another version states that the gods having pity on the grief-stricken boy Krokos who witnessed the death of his lover, the nymph Smilax, changed him into a flower—the saffron crocus and Smilax into the bindweed, forever entwining the two.

• Coincidentally, there is a Smilax Street in Los Angeles.