![]() ![]() Wine plays a central role in several biblical narratives and for most Christians is an important part of the Eucharist. Many spiritual traditions have included deities associated with grapes and wine, notably the Greek Dionysus and Roman Bacchus, but also goddesses and gods from Sumer, Egypt, and China. Since antiquity, many cultures have used wine in religious rituals. Before people understood how yeast and fermentation works, the transformation from juice into wine seemed miraculous. Grapes have an extremely long history with humanity, dating to the dawn of agriculture. Moonseed’s flattened, crescent-shaped “moon” seeds within the berries are a key identifier also, moonseed’s vines do not have shredded bark like most grapes, and its leaves, though lobed, are not toothed. If you harvest wild grapes for eating, make sure not to confuse them with the poisonous moonseed, whose leaves and fruits look similar to those of grapes. You can stuff grape leaves with a precooked, seasoned rice, herbs, and meat mixture called dolmas, this is an ancient Mediterranean cooking technique. ![]() The young, tender leaves are a nice (though chewy) addition to a tossed salad, and they can impart a great flavor to a dill crock, if you add a few grape leaves and young tendrils between layers of the vegetables to be pickled. Some botanists give it its own genus, Muscadinia.Īll of Missouri’s wild grapes (genus Vitis) reportedly make a decent grape jelly look online for recipe ideas for jelly, pies, juice, sherbet, and wine. Also, the pith continues through the nodes, and its tendrils do not branch. It is unusual for the genus, as its bark remains tight on older stems (it doesn’t shred) and appears irregularly warty. It is the ancestor of the cultivated muscadine grapes used as table grapes, raisins, jelly, and wine. rotundifolia), also called scuppernong and southern fox grape, is uncommon and known only from one Bootheel county (Dunklin). Undersides of young leaves are densely covered with long cobwebby hairs, and tendrils and/or flower stalks are present in at least some groups of 3 or more adjacent nodes. Its fruit is noted for its strong, earthy “foxy” aroma and for its skins that easily slip off the pulp of mature grapes. ![]() It is the species that became the Catawba, Concord, Niagara, and many other cultivars. labrusca) is native to eastern North America and is introduced, widely scattered, escaping from cultivation, and uncommon in Missouri. Though uncommon in our state, both are famous for their edible fruits: Six Missouri species have their own pages in this guide links to them are at the bottom of this page:Īlso, two more species are found in Missouri. Clusters usually opposite the leaves.įruits globe-shaped berries, often blue-black, often with a white, waxy coating. Flower clusters are longer than wide, and branch more or less pinnately (like a feather, with no branching of branches), sometimes with umbrella-like branching at the final tip of the cluster. Petals are fused at the tip and shed as a caplike unit when the flower opens. ![]() Stems often swollen at the nodes pith brown (easiest to see on branches less than ½ inch in diameter) and usually chambered (seen on older branches) bark usually shredding.įlowers usually greenish yellow, small male and female flowers in separate clusters on same plant petals 5. Margin with broad, coarse teeth tip usually pointed. Leaf bases are lobed (leaves are heart-shaped), with a sinus (notch) where the leaf stem meets the blade. Leaves are simple (not compound), though they may have 3 or 5 lobes that can be shallow or deep. rupestris) tendrils positioned opposite to leaves and are often branched (except in muscadine, V. Plants are perennial lianas (woody vines) that typically climb into trees, with tendrils (though often lacking in sand grape, V. Missouri’s members of genus Vitis have several things in common: But the species most people think of as grapes are in genus Vitis - and Missouri has eight of them. The grape family in Missouri includes 4 genera, including Virginia creeper and woodbine (genus Parthenocissus), marine vine (genus Cissus), and raccoon grape and peppervine (genus Ampelopsis). ![]()
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