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Vitis cordifolia, Michx. True Frost Grape. Chicken, Raccoon, or Winter Grape. One of the most vigorous of American vines, climbing to the tops of the tallest trees, and sometimes making a trunk 1-2 ft. diam.: diaphragms thick and strong: lvs. long-cordate, triangular-cordate with rounded base, or cordate-ovate, undivided but sometimes very indistinctly 3-lobed or 3-angled, the basal sinus rather deep and narrow, the margin with large acute teeth of different sizes and the point long and acute, the upper surface glossy and the lower bright green and either becoming perfectly glabrous or bearing a little close and fine inconspicuous grayish pubescence on the veins; petioles long: stamens erect in the sterile fls. and short reflexed-curved in the fertile ones: clusters long and very many-flowered, most of the pedicels branched or at least bearing a cluster of fls.: berries numerous and small (about 3/8 in. diam.), in a loose bunch, black and only very slightly glaucous, late and persistent, with a thick skin and little pulp, becoming edible after frost; seeds medium and broad. In thickets and along streams from Pa. (and probably S. N. Y.) to E. Kans., Fla., and Texas.
Var. foetida, Engelm., has fetidly aromatic berries, and grows in the Mississippi Valley.
Var. sempervirens, Munson. A glossy-lvd. form holding its foliage very late: lvs. sometimes suggesting forms of V. rubra, deltoid with a truncate base: clusters small, the fr. ripening later than in the type. S. Fla.
Var. Helleri, Bailey (V. Helleri, Small). Lvs. more circular (i. e., lacking the long point), and the teeth round-obtuse and ending in a short mucro. Kerr Co., S. Texas, 1,600-2,000 ft.
The above text is from the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture. It may be out of date, but still contains valuable and interesting information which can be incorporated into the remainder of the article. Click on "Collapse" in the header to hide this text.
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