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Vitis vinifera
Also called Wine grape, Grape Vine, Grapevine, Common Grapevine, European Grape, European Wine Grape, Grape
Vitis vinifera is the common grape vine, a woody climbing liana native to the Mediterranean, Central Europe and southwest Asia, and the source of most wine and table grapes. It needs full sun, well-drained soil and a firm support to climb on.
Vitis vinifera, the common grape vine, is a species of flowering plant, native to the Mediterranean region, Central Europe, and southwestern Asia, from Morocco and Portugal north to southern Germany and east to northern Iran. As of 2012, there were between 5,000 and 10,000 varieties of Vitis vinifera grapes though only a few are of commercial significance for wine and table grape production.
The wild grape is sometimes classified as Vitis vinifera var. sylvestris (in some classifications considered Vitis sylvestris), with Vitis vinifera var. vinifera restricted to cultivated forms. Domesticated vines have hermaphrodite flowers, but V. vinifera var. sylvestris is dioecious (male and female flowers on separate plants) and pollination is required for fruit to develop.
Use of grapes is known to date back to Neolithic times, following the discovery in 1996 of 7,000-year-old wine storage jars in present-day northern Iran. Further evidence shows the Mesopotamians and Ancient Egyptians had vine plantations and winemaking skills. Greek philosophers praised the healing powers of grapes both whole and in the form of wine. Vitis vinifera cultivation and winemaking in China began during the Han dynasty in the 2nd century with the importation of the species from Ta-Yuan (Syr Darya river valley, Uzbekistan). However, wild vine "mountain grapes" like Vitis thunbergii were being used for wine making before that time. In traditional medicine of India Vitis vinifera is used in prescriptions for cough, respiratory tract catarrh, subacute cases of enlarged liver and spleen, as well as in alcohol-based tonics (Aasavs).
In the Mediterranean Basin, leaves and young stems are traditionally used to feed sheep and goats after grapevine pruning.
V. vinifera accounts for the majority of world wine production; all of the most familiar grape varieties used for wine production belong to V. vinifera.
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 vinifera 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.
