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Wild grape ID needed

18 years ago

At work, there is a huge, sprawling wild grape vine, draping over some trees. The leaves are green, smooth and 2" to 3" across. The fruit appears in loose "clusters," not like most grapes, but more like the fashion of gooseberries. The fruits are very small, the size of fresh peas. Most are still green, yet, but several are starting to ripen, turning burgundy red. There are only a few ripe, dark purple grapes now.

I finally found a ripe one, and tasted it. Much to my surprise, the pulp was extremely bitter. I spat it out, and had to keep spitting to get rid of the bitter taste. WOW!

I want to know just what species this is. I can presume the grapes may be toxic, due to their strongly bitter taste, but still want to know what on earth it could be. I've never heard of bitter wild grapes.

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Comments (3)

sabe
18 years ago
sounds like porcelain berry to me. It pretty much looks and acts like a grape vine, and those berry you described pretty much nails what I see on my own property.

Not sure if its toxic, but its truly a non-issue because you're never gonna be tempted to nibble them again. blech.

They are highly invasive and will smother anything they get near. They also grow super fast.
huachuma
18 years ago
Tomato Worm,

You have at least 3 species of wild grape in OK; Vitis riparia (riverbank grape), Vitis rotundifolia (muscadine grape) and Vitis cinerea (gray-bark grape). I'm only familar with the riverbank variety, but I can tell you that it's pretty much what you described. The fruit are very bitter/sour, but not poisonous. They are often used to make preserves although I became accustomed to the taste of the unprepared berries as a kid, (kind of like I did with crab apples ;)

I've attached a link to the gray-bark grape as a staring point...

Here is a link that might be useful: Gray-bark Grape
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Tomato_Worm59
Original Author
18 years ago
I looked up those species. This vine's fruit is not like that at all. I would have guessed porcelain berry, but these leaves are kelly green and SMOOTH on both sides. Also, not lobed, but serrated. The fruit is dark purple just like a blueberry and has a single, round seed. The pulp is white and runny. The fruits are also green, not white, turn burgundy, then to the dark purple.

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