The Genus Vitis


The genus Vitis belongs to the vine family (Vitaceae) in which most

botanists also put the wood-vines (Ampelopsis), of which Virginia

creeper is the best-known plant. The genus Cissus, to which belong

many southern climbers, is combined with Vitis by some botanists.

Vitis is separated from Ampelopsis and Cissus by marked differences in

several organs, of which, horticulturally at least, those in the

fruit best serve to
distinguish the group. Species of Vitis, with

possibly one or two exceptions, bear pulpy edible fruits; species of

Ampelopsis and Cissus bear fruits with pulp so scant that the berries

are inedible. Vitis is further distinguished as follows: The plants

are climbing or trailing, rarely shrubby, with woody stems and mostly

with coiling, naked-tipped tendrils. The leaves are simple, palmately

lobed, round-dentate or heart-shaped-dentate. The stipules are small,

falling early. The flowers are polygamo-dioecious (some plants with

perfect flowers, others staminate with at most a rudimentary ovary),

five-parted. The petals are separated only at the base and fall off

without expanding. The disk is hypogynous with five nectariferous

glands which are alternate with the stamens. The berry is globose or

ovoid, few-seeded and pulpy. The seeds are pyriform and beak-like at

the base.



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