Photo: Rosenzweig — CC BY-SA 3.0 · source
Survives zone 5 through 9
Harvest calendar
Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.
A small, drought-tough vine of gravelly Ozark riverbanks whose main legacy isn't its very sweet but small, seedy berries — it's the phylloxera-resistant parent behind 'Rupestris St. George' (Rupestris du Lot), one of the rootstocks that saved European viticulture after the 19th-century phylloxera epidemic.
- Hardiness
- Zone 5–9
- Habit
- Vine
- Edible part
- Fruit
- Ripens
- Sept–Oct
- Mature size
- Self-supporting bushy plant 1–2.5 m that rarely climbs and bears few if any tendrils — the "bush grape", and the one Vitis here that needs no trellis
- Light
- Full sun
- Soil pH
- 6.0–7.0
- Environment
- Temperate
- Native range
- South-central US, centered on the Ozark hills of Missouri and Arkansas, with scattered populations east to Pennsylvania and southwest into Oklahoma and Texas
- Status
- Both wild and cultivated
- Years to fruit
- 2–3 yrs
- Growth speed
- Medium; a low, shrubby climber to about 2 m — much shorter than most Vitis species
- Spacing
- 200 cm (79 in) apart — about 4 m² (43 sq ft) per plant
- Leaf shape
- Small, kidney-shaped (reniform) leaves, wider than long, often folded along the midrib, glossy light silver-green above
- Root system
- Deep and drought-tolerant, and phylloxera-resistant -- the combination that made this species one of the founding grapevine rootstocks after phylloxera destroyed Europe's vineyards. It roots readily from cuttings and confers high vigour.
- Fruit description
- Very sweet berries 6–12 mm across, borne in modest-sized bunches
- Propagation
- Seed (fresh-sown, or 6 weeks cold stratification if stored), hardwood cuttings taken December/January, or layering
- 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
How it spreads. Tendril-climbing but low and shrubby, typically found on sandy or gravelly banks, shores and hills rather than climbing high into trees
Growing tips. Prized in viticulture as the source of the 'St. George' (Rupestris du Lot) rootstock, selected in the 1890s and still used to graft Vitis vinifera onto phylloxera-resistant roots. Highly drought-tolerant thanks to deep, vertical roots reaching the water table. Notably low and shrubby (to about 2 m) compared with most other wild grapes.
Grow journal
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