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Vitis riparia
Also called Riverbank grapevine, Frost Grape, River Bank Grape
Riverbank grape (Vitis riparia) is a long-lived, hardy climbing vine native to eastern and central North America, valued as a rootstock and breeding parent for cold-hardy grapes. It grows best in full sun with moist, well-drained soil, and the wild form is mostly grown for its fruit, cold hardiness and disease resistance rather than as an ornamental.
Vitis riparia Michx, with common names riverbank grape or frost grape, is a vine indigenous to North America. As a climbing or trailing vine, it is widely distributed across central and eastern Canada and the central and northeastern parts of the United States, from Quebec to Texas, and eastern Montana to Nova Scotia. There are reports of isolated populations in the northwestern USA, but these are probably naturalized. It is long-lived and capable of reaching into the upper canopy of the tallest trees. It produces dark fruit that are appealing to both birds and people, and has been used extensively in commercial viticulture as grafted rootstock and in hybrid grape breeding programs.
Riverbank grape is a translation of the scientific name Vitis riparia; rīpārius means 'of riverbanks' in Latin, deriving from rīpa 'riverbank'.
Vitis riparia has the largest geographical range of any of the North American Vitis species. It is present across nearly the entire eastern half of North America, from southern Quebec, to Piedmont, Alabama, and the Carolinas
Perhaps the most significant agricultural usage of V. riparia is as grafted rootstock for Vitis vinifera. Important advantages of the use of V. riparia (and hybrids between it and other Vitis species) include resistance to phylloxera and adaptation to variant soil types.
Mapleleaf grape · Vitis adenoclada · Summer grape · Amur grape · Canyon grape · Vitis balansana · Vitis bellula · Autumn grape · Birch-leaf grape · Vitis blancoi · North China Grape · California wild grape
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Vitis riparia by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
