Sweet mountain grape

Photo: Jo Roberts — CC BY 1.0 · source

Survives zone 7 through 9

Harvest calendar

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

One of the smallest-statured wild American grape vines, with small but sweet, good-flavored black fruit — the species name and common name both point to its true-to-flavor sweetness among wild grapes, most of which run tart. Also valued as a rootstock parent for its limestone-soil and drought tolerance.

Hardiness

Zone 7–9

Habit

Vine

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

Aug–Sept

Mature size

Climbing vine to 4–6 m with support

Light

Full sun

Soil pH

7.0–8.0 (neutral to alkaline), limestone soils

Environment

Semi-arid, limestone hill country

Native range

Central Texas Hill Country — limestone canyons, bluffs and dry rocky slopes, largely restricted to the Edwards Plateau region.

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

Small, cordate, 4–8 cm, shallowly to unlobed, glossy dark green

Root system

Deep, and notably lime-tolerant: a Texas limestone-hill species, which is why it appears in rootstock breeding aimed at high-pH calcareous soils where most vines go chlorotic.

Fruit description

Small black grapes, 6–10 mm, sweet and well-flavored for a wild grape

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.