− | Vitis caribaea, DC. Fig. 3963. Climbing, with flocculent-woolly (or rarely almost glabrous) and striate shoots: tendrils rarely continuous: lvs. cordate-ovate or even broader and mostly acuminate-pointed, sometimes obscurely angled above (but never lobed except now and then on young shoots), becoming glabrous above but generally remaining rufous-tomentose below, the margins set with very small, mucro-tipped sinuate teeth: cluster long and long-peduncled, generally large and very compound: berry small and globose, purple; seed obovate, grooved on the dorsal side. A widely distributed and variable species in the American tropics, running into white-lvd. forms (as in V. Blancoi, Munson). Although supposed to occur from Fla. to Texas, Munson is "unable to discover the slightest traces of this species in the U. S.;" he considers the Fla. plants to be hybrids of other species, or forms of V. cinerea. The species is considered to be promising for the development of a pomological grape for the tropics (F. S. Earle, Journ. Heredity, Dec., 1915). V. rufotomentosa, Small, differs in having the lf.-blades usually distinctly lobed and the margins coarsely toothed, rusty tomentose on nerves beneath: sandy soil, Fla to La. | + | Vitis caribaea, DC. Climbing, with flocculent-woolly (or rarely almost glabrous) and striate shoots: tendrils rarely continuous: lvs. cordate-ovate or even broader and mostly acuminate-pointed, sometimes obscurely angled above (but never lobed except now and then on young shoots), becoming glabrous above but generally remaining rufous-tomentose below, the margins set with very small, mucro-tipped sinuate teeth: cluster long and long-peduncled, generally large and very compound: berry small and globose, purple; seed obovate, grooved on the dorsal side. A widely distributed and variable species in the American tropics, running into white-lvd. forms (as in V. Blancoi, Munson). Although supposed to occur from Fla. to Texas, Munson is "unable to discover the slightest traces of this species in the U. S.;" he considers the Fla. plants to be hybrids of other species, or forms of V. cinerea. The species is considered to be promising for the development of a pomological grape for the tropics (F. S. Earle, Journ. Heredity, Dec., 1915). V. rufotomentosa, Small, differs in having the lf.-blades usually distinctly lobed and the margins coarsely toothed, rusty tomentose on nerves beneath: sandy soil, Fla to La. |