In this work, leafy spikes-like silver dendrites were synthesized in a large scale via facile strategy method and this kind of silver nanocrystals exhibit a special textured surface morphology with a wedge-shaped architecture and higher specific surface area. The influence of experimental parameters including reaction time, concentration of the reactants and the reaction temperature on the dendrite morphology was also discussed employing SEM and SERS method. It was found that these spikes-like silver dendrites obtained under the optimal condition could serve as highly sensitive substrates for surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) detection. (c) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.