From Eat the Weeds
and other things, too
by Green Deane
Grapes of Path
Wild Grapes supposedly with European heritage
Who
ever first wrote the phrase “grapes of wrath” certainly
must have been trying to identify a particular grape vine. Grapes
are at the same time easy to identify and maddening to identify. That
one has a grape is pretty easy to sort out. Deciding which grape you
have can bring on insanity. That problem is compounded in The South
because there are native grapes, escaped hybrid grapes and a lot of
cross breeding by Mom Nature. And the cause of it all is Pierce’s
Disease.
Biologist Newton B. Pierce was studying grape disease
in California about a century ago. At the time a mysterious disease
affecting grapes was called Anaheim Disease. It was later was found to
be the same disease causing problems in Florida. The disease was
controlled in California but not in The South. While Pierce made great
strides with the disease — got it named after him — it was
not until 1978 that the insect-carried bacteria involved was finally
identified. It was a detective story 400 years in the making.
In
the 1500’s, a century before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock
and three hundred years before California became a state, the Spanish
in Florida noticed a lot of wild grapes growing. They made wine from
the native grapes and planted grapes from back home in Spain.
Unfortunately, the European grapes died, and for more than 300 years
that was the story of growing non-native grapes in Florida.
In
1891 some 60 grape varieties were planted mid-state and they, too,
died. In 1894 over a thousand acres were planted further north in the
state. They perished as well. It looked like the end of growing
non-native grapes in Florida.
Then the state’s
agricultural service got involved and began hybridizing varieties of
grapes that could be grown in Florida. They had early successes and
over the course of several decades some of those successful hybrids
escaped as well. So Florida has five kinds of grapes: Native
muscadines, grapes descended from muscadines and early plantings of
European grapes (let’s call them escaped cultivars) intentional
hybrids under cultivation, intentional hybrids that have naturalized
(often found unattended near old homesteads) and nearly any combination
of the above. Now you know why grapes can be maddening.
Native muscadine grapes
The
local muscadines and escaped cultivars fall into two groups, which as a
forager you will come across from Florida to Texas. First is the pure
muscadine native which has a single tendril with six to 30 grapes per
cluster, not bunch, see image above. The second is group is escaped
cultivars with split tendrils and bunches of grapes of 30 or more, see
photo at top.
Now exactly which grape it is can be confusing.
Not counting those specifically under cultivation you can find in the
local wild Vitis
rotunifolia, Vitis munsoniana, Vitis shuttleworthii, Vitis aestivalis,
Vitis cinerea, and Vitis
vulpina.
There are also many subspecies as well and over the years local tribes
also spread the crossbreeds. (If that is not complicated enough some
now think the forked-tendril grapes are not escaped cultivars but
native. The botanical jury is still out on that one.)
If it has
smooth bark, an unforked tendril, smooth, non-hairy leaves and you are
north and west of the Suwanee River and the cluster of grapes number
six to eight, it is probably V.
rotundifolia.
If you on the peninsula of Florida and it has smooth bark, non-hairy
leaves, the tendril is unforked and the grapes are a cluster of 12 to
30 berries, then it is probably V. munsoniana. If you are in north or
west Florida and you think you have V. rotundifolia or V. munsioniana but
the bark on mature stems shreds in strips or squares you have V. vulpina.
Green Deane with grapevine at his grandfather’s house in Karea, Greece
Now
it gets sticky: If you have a forked tendril, a thick grape leaf
that’s hairy below (whitish short hairs, sometimes light brown,
that resemble felt) wrinkled on top (think quilted mattress) a downward
curve from the mid-rib and a large semi-sweet fruit, you are in the
lower two-thirds of the state and your feet could be wet, you could
have V. shuttleworthii,
which perhaps a variation of V.
aestavalis. If you live in Texas and think you have a V. shutteworthii but
the grape tastes fiery pungent, you have V. candicans.
Incidentally, V.
shutteworthii is the direct ancestor of the cultivated
“Stover” grape.
If
you have a forked tendril, a thin flat leaf, smooth on top, but hairy
below (rust-colored hairs that are NOT felt-like) and you are in New
Jersey or below, you probably have V.
aestivalis, which has at least four subspecies, V. sola, V. simpsonii, V.
smallinana, and V.
divegent. The V.
aestivalis and V.
simpsonii was used in the creation of the Lake Emerald and
Norris varieties. The V.
aestivalis is also in the ancestry of V. bourquiniana
varieties of Herbemont and Lenoir.
If
you have a forked tendril, the leaf is wrinkled dull green on top,
white hairy below, branchlets look white or gray and the leaf base is
deeply indented, and you are in the northwest portion of the state it
could be V. cinerea.
That is the most common grape in southeastern North America, excluding
Florida.
To
recap, if possible: If it is a grape with smooth bark, a round leaf,
and probably toothy, with a single tendril, it is a muscadine, V. rotundiafolia to
the north and west of the state, V.
munsoniana to the middle and south. If you have all that
and the mature bark is in strips or squares, it is V. vulpina.
Grape with forked tendrils
If
it has a forked tendril, the leaf is wrinkled on top and hairy
underneath, and you are in the lower two thirds of the state and your
feet are wet, it is probably V.
shuttleworthii. If the leaf is smooth on top, hairy below,
and has a forked tendril, and your feet are dry it is probably V. aestivalis. If
it is wrinkled on top, hairy below, has a gray cast and you live in the
western part of the state and north, it is V. cinerea. Whew!
If that is not confusing enough some argue the muscadines should not be
in the Vitis
genus at all and are rightfully the subgenus of Muscadinia because
they have two more genes than the Vitis
members. They would also make at least two more species in the
subgenus. I should also mention that bringing into The South grape
roots or plants from elsewhere will probably end in death.
Pierce’s Disease is known to kill off at least 300 different
species of grape.
Grape with single tendrils
One
question I hear often is why aren’t the native grapes producing?
They always seem not to have grapes. There are two answers: One is 90%
of the vines have male flowers and all they do is basically lie around
drinking sun all the time producing nothing except a little pollen. And
the gals? They fruit sporadically. However, the so-called non-native
escaped cultivars produce almost every year.
As for
pronunciation they are VEE-tiss (grape) row-tun-dee-FOH-lee-ah
(roundleaf) es-tuh-VAL-uhs (of the field) sin-EER-ee-uh (the color of
cinders, ashes) KAND-ik-anz, kan-DEEK-anz (white or wooly) vul-PEE-nah
(fox) munso-nee-ANN-ah, simp-SON-ee-eye, bore-quin-nee-ANN-ah,
ShuttleWORTH-ee-eye
Three tidbits:
1.
If you make grape jelly from muscadines don’t crush them bare
handed or bare footed. The high acid content can lightly burn your
hands or feet. Also, grape sap is drinkable.
2. The grape vine,
however, has a peculiar vascular arrangement. If you cut the vine it
will not leak water unless you invert it. You can get a quart or more
from a one-foot piece.
3. In all English dialects except American
English “vine” means the grape vine. In American English
“vine” can mean many plants, not just the grape vine.
Green Deane’s
“Itemized” Plant Profile
Identification:
Grapes are woody vines with tendrils. Vines without tendrils that look
like grapes are not grapes. The leaves vary greatly in shape from
serrated and round to heart-shaped and smooth to lobed and hairy. The
seeds of the grape are always tear-drop shaped. A grape-look alike is
the moonseed which has seeds that are shaped like a crescent moon.
Grapes in Florida tend to grow in clusters of two to 10, or bunches of
20 to 30 or more (not counting loss of numbers to birds and foraging
humans.) Fruits are blue to black. There are hybrids under cultivation
— some 300 different ones — that can be green, red, blue or
black and are often very large.
Time of year:
Mid-summer to late fall in Florida, more towards fall as one goes
farther north. Locally September first is a good date to aim for.
Environment:
Grapes like full sun, good drainage and a healthy amount of water. But,
they will survive in dry areas, putting on small fruit. They can even
be found growing in Florida swamps, so they are very adaptable.
Method
of preparation:
Out of hand as they come off the vine. They can be made into jelly,
jam, wine, raisins, fruit leather; the seeds can be pressed for oil and
the young leaves boiled and eaten. The leaves of the hybrids are
preferred to the muscadines. Muscadines can be high in acid so when
crushing to make jelly don’t use your hand. Oh, and the seeds can
be used to make grappa.
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