8. Vitis vulpina L. (winter grape, frost grape, chicken grape)

V. cordifolia Michx.

Pl. 582 g; Map 2724

Young stems circular in cross-section or somewhat angled, glabrous at flowering time (sometimes sparsely and inconspicuously cobwebby-hairy when very young), green, gray, or brown, occasionally with some purplish red coloration along 1 side, the nodes not glaucous, not reddish-tinged. Pith interrupted at the nodes, the diaphragms 1.0–2.5 mm wide on new growth, eventually thickening to 2–5 mm wide on older branches. Older stems with the bark shredding, not appearing warty. Tendrils common, present at no more than 2 adjacent nodes (every third node lacking both a tendril and an inflorescence), 2- or 3-branched. Leaves with the petiole 2/3 as long to as long as the blades, sparsely to moderately and minutely hairy or glabrous at flowering time. Leaf blades mostly 4–15(–20) cm long, slightly longer than to about as long as wide, ovate to broadly ovate or nearly circular in outline, flat at maturity, unlobed or shallowly (rarely deeply) 3-lobed, the sinuses mostly broadly U-shaped, the lobes narrowed or tapered to short-tapered to a sharply pointed tip, the upper surface glabrous or sparsely and minutely hairy along the main veins, sometimes somewhat shiny. Undersurface of young leaves glabrous or more commonly sparsely to fairly densely pubescent with minute, straight, more or or less spreading hairs along and in the axils of the main veins, not glaucous. Inflorescences at no more than 2 adjacent nodes, 6–19 cm long, mostly narrowly pyramid-shaped. Fruits mostly more than 25 per infructescence, 5–12 mm in diameter, the surface with lenticels absent, black, not or only slightly glaucous. Seeds 3–5 mm long, dark brown. May–June.

Scattered nearly throughout the state (eastern U.S. west to Nebraska and Texas; Canada). Bottomland forests, mesic upland forests, bases and ledges of bluffs, banks of streams and rivers, and edges of ponds and lakes; also roadsides and railroads.