Relatives

Vitis sylvestris C.C. Gmel. - Wood grapes.

Taxonomic position.

Family Vitacea Juss. Genus Vitis L.

Morphology and biology.

A perennial plant. A bark is greish-brown, with thin grooves. Leaves are 5-8 cm in length, ovare, wide - oval or reniform, almost entire or little incised, more often 3-5-lobed, naked or pubescent, mainly - from below. Stalks are with rare setas or naked. Flowers are dioecious. Inflorescences - panicle. Seeds are small, 3,5-6 mm in length and 3-5 mm in width; there are 1-4 seeds a fruit, ovare forms, with short rostrum. Clusters during fructification are up to 15 cm in length, friable, branchy, the various form. Fruit stalks are 4-7 mm in length. Berries are 6-8 (10) mm in length; black with a greish-lilac bloom, rare it is white. A thin skin is dense, pulp gentle, almost colorless. Blossoms in May, fructifies in September. Anemophylous. Zoochore.

Distribution.

The common distribution: the Atlantic and Average Europe, the Mediterranean, Balkany-Asia Minor and Armenian-Kurdish areas, Iran. In territory of the former USSR: the European part - Moldova, southern Crimea, Black Sea Coast (the western part); Caucasus - Ciscaucasia, Dagestan, Transcaucasia (Western, East and Southern); Central Asia - mountain Turkmenistan.

Ecology.

On valleys of the rivers, up to 1500-1800 m above sea level.

Use and economic value.

It is used for breeding of grapes varieties, resistant against a phylloxera and fungoid diseases, possessing the greater stability to these diseases. This species possesses also high cold constancy and drought resistance. On Caucasus the local population uses wood grapes for wine producing and they use unripe tinned berries as seasoning to meat dishes.

References:

Areas of trees and bushes of the USSR, 1986. Vol. 3. Sokolov S.J., Svjazeva, O.A. (ed.). - Leningrad: Nauka. P. 83-84. (in Russian).
Cherepanov, S.K. 1995. Plantae Vasculares Rossicae et Civitatum Collimitanearum (in limicis USSR olim). St-Petersburg, "Mir I Semia", 990 p. (in Russian).
Flora USSR, 1949. Vol. XIV, Shishkin B.K., Bobrov E.G. (ed.) M.-L.: Publishing House of Acad. Science, pp. 697-700. (in Russian).
Grossgeim, A.A. 1967. Flora of Caucasia. - Leningrad, Nauka, Vol. VII, p. 131, appendix. (in Russian).
The Manual of Middle Asia plants. 1971. S.S. Kovalevskaja (ed.) - Tashkent, "Fan", Vol. , p. . (in Russian).
Moesel, H. 1965. Vergleichende Chorologie der Zentraleuropischen Flora. Jena, 583 p. (in German)

© Smekalova, T.N.

 

Web design —
Kelnik studios