It is a vine that grows from a huge bulb system. It starts out looking like asparagus spears. The vine grows straight up until it reaches a tree limb or something. The stalk is nothing but thorns. This vine can be 40 plus feet high and as its growing up to a foot a day there are only a couple of leaves.
Hi Richard,
well, based on your photo and description, this must be a species of Smilax, greenbrier. Which one I do not know because I need to see the mature leaves. Please resubmit when you have these.
Sincerely,
Dr. Steven Hill, botanist, SCNPS