Vitis cordifolia Michx.

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Vitis cordifolia' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/vitis/vitis-cordifolia/). Accessed 2024-03-28.

Genus

Common Names

  • Frost or chicken grape

Synonyms

  • V. vulpina L., in part
  • nom. confus .

Glossary

glabrous
Lacking hairs smooth. glabrescent Becoming hairless.
globose
globularSpherical or globe-shaped.
ovate
Egg-shaped; broadest towards the stem.
sinus
Recess between two lobes or teeth on leaf margin.

References

There are no active references in this article.

Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Vitis cordifolia' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/vitis/vitis-cordifolia/). Accessed 2024-03-28.

A very vigorous vine, whose main stem in the wild is sometimes from 112 to 2 ft thick; young shoots smooth or only slightly hairy, a tendril missing from every third joint. Leaves thin, roundish ovate, with a heart-shaped base (the sinus pointed and narrow), 3 to 5 in. wide, rather more in length, slenderly pointed, coarsely and irregularly toothed, unlobed or sometimes obscurely three-lobed, glossy and glabrous above, glabrous or downy on the veins beneath; stalk often as long as the blade. Flowers in drooping panicles, 4 to 12 in. long. Berries globose, 13 to 12 in. in diameter, black.

Native of the eastern and southern United States; introduced in 1806. The berries are moderately well-flavoured after they have been touched with frost in America, harsh and acid before; in var. foetida Engelm., described from the Mississippi basin, they have a pungent, foetid odour.

This is probably the species to which the name V. vulpina L. should be applied, but it has so often been used for V. riparia as to be a source of confusion.