Flora of New Zealand Series

grape

Vigorous liane; tendrils usually forked, intermittently present at nodes. Young shoots and lvs greyish white with floccose tomentum, sometimes pale brown. Petiole usually < lamina. Lamina of mature lvs to c. 17 × 18 cm (larger in cultivation), broad-ovate, 3- or 5-lobed to varying degrees, glabrous to whitish or pale greyish tomentose below, coarsely serrate; basal sinus usually deep and narrow with lobes tending to overlap but sometimes lobes forming a wide, rounded sinus. Fls fragrant, green, in dense elongated panicles replacing tendrils in the upper shoot axils. Calyx truncate, 0.2-0.5 mm long. Corolla 1.5-2.5 mm long; lobes valvate and lightly cohering towards apex. Filaments < or > corolla. Berry ± globular, (0.5)-0.7-1.5-(2.3) cm diam., black with some glaucous bloom; flesh sweet.

N.: N. Auckland, Auckland, Coromandel Peninsula, Bay of Plenty, Hawke's Bay; S.: Karamea (Buller County), Christchurch, Timaru; K.: Raoul Id.

Mediterranean 1870

Around old gardens and rubbish dumps, sometimes on roadsides.

FL Oct-Dec.

Wild grapes form dense tangled thickets and climb to c. 15 m high on trees; they mainly or solely spread by copious stem layers. In cultivation such rampant growth is usually checked by annual pruning. Almost certainly, grapes grow wild to a minor extent in many other areas in addition to those listed above. Probably all or most wild grapes have rather small black frs, whereas in cultivation the frs are often larger and may be green or yellow. Presumably such wild plants correspond to one or more cvs introduced last century. The above description is based on wild plants and persistent relics in old gardens. Some of these plants probably represent hybrids of V. vinifera with at least 2 N. American spp. There is much more variation amongst the many cvs found in vineyards; such variation is also in part the result of hybrids with N. American grapes, especially the labrusca grape, V. labrusca L.. For example, one of the commonest black-fruited cvs in N.Z. gardens, `Albany Surprise', is mainly of labrusca origin. The chief V. labrusca characteristics are the much tougher lvs, the presence of tendrils at most of the nodes and the tendency to have a brownish tomentum. The second N. American sp. which may be involved in the parentage of the wild grapes in N.Z. is V. riparia Michaux. This has lvs which are green and scarcely hairy beneath at maturity, whilst the basal sinus is wide and shallow. Both these American spp. have black frs in N.Z., and along with others, and hybrids between them, were presumably introduced as stocks for V. vinifera cvs because of the susceptiblity of such cvs to phylloxera aphids when grown on their own roots. This pest was present in N.Z. by the late 19th century and soon after its discovery stocks of N. American Vitis spp. were introduced.