Arizona grape

Photo: Stan Shebs — CC BY-SA 3.0 · source

Survives zone 6 through 9

Harvest calendar

Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.

Small, tart-sweet fruit, good fresh once fully ripe and popular for jelly and wine among wild grapes. Highly valued in viticulture as rootstock — its drought and alkaline-soil tolerance, and resistance to phylloxera and Pierce's disease, make it a parent of several commercial rootstock cultivars.

Hardiness

Zone 6–9

Habit

Vine

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

Aug–Sept

Mature size

Climbing vine to 6–9 m with support

Light

Full sun

Soil pH

6.5–8.0 (neutral to alkaline), drought-tolerant

Environment

Arid to semi-arid, riparian

Native range

Southwestern United States and northern Mexico — Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, California, Nevada, Utah — canyons, streambanks and desert washes.

Status

Wild

Years to fruit

3–4 yrs

Growth speed

Very fast — 2–5 m of cane in a season once established

Spacing

200 cm (79 in) apart — about 4 m² (43 sq ft) per plant

Leaf shape

Cordate (heart-shaped), 5–12 cm, coarsely toothed, often lobed

Root system

Deep, chasing moisture in desert canyons and along intermittent washes; drought-hardy once established and difficult to move afterwards.

Fruit description

Small black grapes, 8–12 mm, tart-sweet, in loose clusters

Propagation

Hardwood cuttings in winter, or seed (needs cold stratification).

Pollination

⚠ DIOECIOUS — needs male + female (a vigorous fruitless wild vine is usually a lone male)

The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.