Photo: Sten Porse — 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.
Asian wild grape is a minor foraged fruit across China, Japan and Korea — its small, acidic, pea-sized berries are eaten locally and used in traditional medicine — but unlike V. amurensis or V. coignetiae it has not been taken up for breeding or ornamental cultivation to any significant degree.
- Hardiness
- Zone 6–9
- Habit
- Vine
- Edible part
- Fruit
- Ripens
- Sept–Oct
- Mature size
- Vine 6–12 m
- Light
- Full sun
- Soil pH
- 6.0–7.0
- Environment
- Temperate
- Native range
- China, Japan and Korea, originally described from Hubei; grows wild in hill and mountain woodlands of central and southern Japan.
- Status
- Wild
- Years to fruit
- 2–3 yrs
- Growth speed
- Moderate, to around 8 m.
- Spacing
- 350 cm (138 in) apart — about 12 m² (132 sq ft) per plant
- Leaf shape
- Small leaves — among the smallest of the Chinese native wild grapevines — round to triangular with a truncated tip, narrow, and unevenly toothed, with a downy leaf stalk.
- Root system
- Vigorous and deep-rooting, as in most of the Asian wild grapes.
- Fruit description
- Small, pea-sized, round, dark purple berries with just 1–2 seeds, borne in bunches; distinctly acidic/tart, eaten raw or dried for winter use.
- Propagation
- By seed after around six weeks of cold stratification sown in a cold frame as soon as ripe, or by hardwood cuttings taken in December-January; layering is also viable.
- 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.
Growing guide
Fertilizing. Prefers deep, rich, well-drained loam and grows best on calcareous soils; tolerates humid, hot climates well and needs only routine feeding.
How it spreads. Tendril-climber to about 8 m; a long-lived, adaptable vine that persists and spreads in disturbed woodland edges across its range.
Growing tips. Notably adaptable to humid, hot conditions and long-lived, though somewhat less disease-resistant than its Chinese relatives V. davidii and V. adstricta (V. heyneana); susceptible to honey fungus. Needs a warm sunny spot to ripen fruit and winter-only pruning.
Grow journal
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