Menu list goes here

Herbal Database Search Results

Back to: Pathways Main Search Page For Metaphysical uses visit The Witchs Haven

Vitis labrusca

Common name:	Northern Fox Grape	Family:	Vitaceae
Author:	L.	Botanical references:	11, 43, 200
Synonyms:
Known Hazards:	None known
Range:	Eastern N. America - Maine to S. Carolina and Tennessee. Locally naturalized in Europe[50].
Habitat:	Wet or dry thickets and woodland borders[43].
Edibility Rating (1-5):	3	Medicinal Rating (1-5):	1

Other Possible Synonyms:	From various places across the web, may not be correct. See below.
	V. labrusca var. subedentata[B,P]
Other Common Names:	From various places around the Web, may not be correct. See below.
	Fox Grape [B,P], Foxgrape [H], Ing Yu [E], Northern Fox Grape [L], Wild Vine [H],
Systematics:	From a USDA Plants Database
	Order: Rhamnales. Grape family
Other Range Info:	From the Ethnobotany Database
	China Us(Amerindian)
Noxious, Invasive and Injurious Weeds	From USDA PLANTS database, Weeds Australia , DEFRA Injurious Weeds
	Listed as noxious/invasive for: USA Invasive.

Physical Characteristics

A decidious climber growing to 15m at a fast rate. It is hardy to zone 7 and is frost tender. It is in flower from May to July, and the seeds ripen from September to October. The scented flowers are hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs) and are pollinated by Insects. We rate it 3/5 for edibility and 1/5 for medicinal use.

The plant prefers light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils and requires well-drained soil. The plant prefers acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils. It can grow in semi-shade (light woodland) or no shade. It requires dry or moist soil.

Habitats and Possible Locations

Woodland, Sunny Edge, Dappled Shade.

Cultivar 'Glenora': Woodland, Sunny Edge, Dappled Shade, By Walls, By South Wall, By West Wall.
Cultivar 'Himrod': Woodland, Sunny Edge, Dappled Shade, By Walls, By South Wall, By West Wall.
Cultivar 'Isabella': Woodland, Sunny Edge, Dappled Shade, By Walls, By South Wall, By West Wall.
Cultivar 'Price': Woodland, Sunny Edge, Dappled Shade, By Walls, By South Wall, By West Wall.
Cultivar 'Reliance': Woodland, Sunny Edge, Dappled Shade, By Walls, By South Wall, By West Wall.

Edible Uses

Fruit Leaves Oil Sap.

Fruit - raw or dried for winter use[1, 2, 46, 61, 161]. The fruit can also be made into pies, preserves etc[183]. A distinctive musky aroma and taste that is not acceptable to many people[11, 183, 200]. The fruit is best after a frost[101]. Sweetish[43], it contains 6.6 - 16.6% sugars[179]. The fruit is up to 2cm in diameter[200] and is produced in fairly large bunches[235].
Young leaves - cooked[55, 159]. A pleasant acid flavour, they are cooked as greens or can be wrapped around other foods and then baked, when they impart a pleasant flavour[183].
Young tendrils - raw or cooked[55, 85, 159].
Sap. Best harvested in the spring or early summer, it has a sweet flavour and makes a pleasant drink[101]. The sap should not be harvested in quantity or it will weaken the plant[K].
An oil is obtained from the seed[46, 61]. This would only really be a viable crop if large quantities of grapes were being grown for wine.

Medicinal Uses

Disclaimer

Miscellany Poultice.

The leaves are hepatic[257]. An infusion has been used in the treatment of diarrhoea, hepatitis, stomach aches, fevers, headaches and thrush[222, 257]. Externally, the leaves are poulticed and applied to sore breasts, rheumatic joints and headaches[222, 257]. The wilted leaves have been applied as a poultice to the breasts to draw away soreness after the birth of a child[257.
An infusion of the bark has been used to treat urinary complaints[257].

Other Uses

Dye Rootstock.

A yellow dye is obtained from the fresh or dried leaves[168].
The plant is used as a rootstock for the common grape, V. vinifera, especially in areas where phylloxera disease is prevalent[61].

Cultivation details

Prefers a deep rich moist well-drained moderately fertile loam[1, 200]. Grows best in a calcareous soil[200]. Succeeds in sun or partial shade though a warm sunny position is required for the fruit to ripen[200].
The young growth in spring can be damaged by late frosts.
Plants climb by means of tendrils[182], they grow particularly well into elm trees[18].
The flowers have the sweet scent of mignonette[245].
Any pruning should be carried out in winter when the plants are dormant otherwise they bleed profusely[182, 200].
Cultivated for its edible fruit in N. America, where it can produce yields of up to 17 tonnes per hectare[183]. It is the parent of several named varieties[1, 43, 183]. However, it is of no value as a fruit bearer in Britain, requiring hotter summers than are usually experienced in this country in order to ripen its fruit[11]. Another report says that this species is of interest for its hardiness and its ability to produce crops in cooler climates[200].
Resistant to Phylloxera disease, a disease that almost destroyed the European grape crops. This species can be used as a rootstock in areas where the disease is prevalent[61] and can also be used in breeding programmes with V. vinifera in order to impart resistance to that species[183].
Plants in this genus are notably susceptible to honey fungus[200].

Propagation

Seed - best sown in a cold frame as soon as it is ripe[K]. Six weeks cold stratification improves the germination rate, and so stored seed is best sown in a cold frame as soon as it is obtained. Germination should take place in the first spring, but sometimes takes another 12 months. Prick out the seedlings into individual pots when they are large enough to handle and grow them on in a cold frame for their first winter. Plant out in early summer.
Cuttings of mature wood of the current seasons growth, December/January in a frame. These cuttings can be of wood 15 - 30cm long or they can be of short sections of the stem about 5cm long with just one bud at the top of the section. In this case a thin, narrow strip of the bark about 3cm long is removed from the bottom half of the side of the stem. This will encourage callusing and the formation of roots. Due to the size of these cuttings they need to be kept in a more protected environment than the longer cuttings.
Layering.

Scent

Flowers: Fresh: The flowers have the sweet scent of mignonette[245].

Cultivars

'Reliance': The medium-size round fruit has a pinkish-red skin[183]. The flesh is firm, tender, melting and sweet, it ripens early to mid-season and is excellent for table use[183]. The fruit is produced in large compact clusters, it ships and stores well[183]. A vigorous, productive vine, it is adapted to a wide range of conditions and is very hardy, tolerating temperatures down to about -30° c[183]. It is susceptible to black rot[183].
'Price': The medium size, bluish-black fruit has a pure, sweet flavour lacking any of the American foxyness, it is very good for table use or for juice[183]. It ripens early to mid-season[183]. The fruit is borne in relatively small, medium compact clusters[183]. A vigorous, productive vine, it is one of the best cultivars for extra cool areas of the Pacific northwest of N. America because of its ability to ripen early, even in cool weather[183].
'Isabella': The medium to large oval fruit has a very tough deep black skin with a heavy blue bloom[183]. The flesh is juicy, tender, foxy, sweet to sub-acid and of good quality[183]. The fruit is borne in medium to large clusters, it is fairly late ripening and keeps well[183]. A moderately vigorous and productive vine, it is hardy but susceptible to mildew[183]. This is the most widely grown American cultivar in other parts of the world[183].
'Himrod': The small oval fruit has a greenish-yellow translucent skin[183]. The flesh is tender, juicy, melting and vinous with small soft seeds, the quality is good[183]. An early ripening cultivar, the fruit is produced in large, very long clusters that are poorly filled[183]. A vigorous, fairly hardy vine, though it is not very productive[183].
'Glenora': The small to medium sized fruits have a thin blue-black skin[183]. The flesh is firm but tender, juicy, sweet, somewhat foxy, entirely free of seeds[183]. An early to mid-season grape, it is of very good quality for table use[183]. The fruit is produced in loose clusters[183]. A vigorous, moderately productive, hardy vine, it is resistant to mildew[183].

Suppliers

For more details of plant suppliers please see our Suppliers Page which lists many more places to look.

Web References

[H] Details of Scandanavian and European Common names in Henriette's names database
[E] Ethnobotany Data (common names, uses, countries) from the Ethnobotany Database.
[B] Data (Latin & Common names, other references) from the BONAP's Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
[G] Data (Common Names, Uses, Distribution) from the USDA/ARS NPGS's GRIN taxonomic database.
[P] Data. (uses, distribution, wetland) from the USDA'a Plants database.
[HP] Links, Photos, Suppliers from Hortiplex Plant Database

References for the family Vitaceae.

To be included in the Flora of China.

See the PFAF Links Pages for other sources.

Also try Photos and info from the The Plants Database which has 14,000 images.

References

[K] Ken Fern
Notes from observations, tasting etc at Plants For A Future and on field trips.

[1] F. Chittendon. RHS Dictionary of Plants plus Supplement. 1956 Oxford University Press 1951
Comprehensive listing of species and how to grow them. Somewhat outdated, it has been replaces in 1992 by a new dictionary (see [200]).

[2] Hedrick. U. P. Sturtevant's Edible Plants of the World. Dover Publications 1972 ISBN 0-486-20459-6
Lots of entries, quite a lot of information in most entries and references.

[11] Bean. W. Trees and Shrubs Hardy in Great Britain. Vol 1 - 4 and Supplement. Murray 1981
A classic with a wealth of information on the plants, but poor on pictures.

[18] Philbrick H. and Gregg R. B. Companion Plants. Watkins 1979
Details of beneficial and antagonistic relationships between neighbouring plants.

[43] Fernald. M. L. Gray's Manual of Botany. American Book Co. 1950
A bit dated but good and concise flora of the eastern part of N. America.

[46] Uphof. J. C. Th. Dictionary of Economic Plants. Weinheim 1959
An excellent and very comprehensive guide but it only gives very short descriptions of the uses without any details of how to utilize the plants. Not for the casual reader.

[50] ? Flora Europaea Cambridge University Press 1964
An immense work in 6 volumes (including the index). The standard reference flora for europe, it is very terse though and with very little extra information. Not for the casual reader.

[55] Harris. B. C. Eat the Weeds. Pivot Health 1973
Interesting reading.

[61] Usher. G. A Dictionary of Plants Used by Man. Constable 1974 ISBN 0094579202
Forget the sexist title, this is one of the best books on the subject. Lists a very extensive range of useful plants from around the world with very brief details of the uses. Not for the casual reader.

[85] Harrington. H. D. Edible Native Plants of the Rocky Mountains. University of New Mexico Press 1967 ISBN 0-8623-0343-9
A superb book. Very readable, it gives the results of the authors experiments with native edible plants.

[101] Turner. N. J. and Szczawinski. A. Edible Wild Fruits and Nuts of Canada. National Museum of Natural Sciences 1978
A very readable guide to some wild foods of Canada.

[159] McPherson. A. and S. Wild Food Plants of Indiana. Indiana University Press 1977 ISBN 0-253-28925-4
A nice pocket guide to this region of America.

[161] Yanovsky. E. Food Plants of the N. American Indians. Publication no. 237. U.S. Depf of Agriculture.
A comprehensive but very terse guide. Not for the casual reader.

[168] Grae. I. Nature's Colors - Dyes from Plants. MacMillan Publishing Co. New York. 1974 ISBN 0-02-544950-8
A very good and readable book on dyeing.

[179] Reid. B. E. Famine Foods of the Chiu-Huang Pen-ts'ao. Taipei. Southern Materials Centre 1977
A translation of an ancient Chinese book on edible wild foods. Fascinating.

[182] Thomas. G. S. Ornamental Shrubs, Climbers and Bamboos. Murray 1992 ISBN 0-7195-5043-2
Contains a wide range of plants with a brief description, mainly of their ornamental value but also usually of cultivation details and varieties.

[183] Facciola. S. Cornucopia - A Source Book of Edible Plants. Kampong Publications 1990 ISBN 0-9628087-0-9
Excellent. Contains a very wide range of conventional and unconventional food plants (including tropical) and where they can be obtained (mainly N. American nurseries but also research institutes and a lot of other nurseries from around the world.

[200] Huxley. A. The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992. MacMillan Press 1992 ISBN 0-333-47494-5
Excellent and very comprehensive, though it contains a number of silly mistakes. Readable yet also very detailed.

[222] Foster. S. & Duke. J. A. A Field Guide to Medicinal Plants. Eastern and Central N. America. Houghton Mifflin Co. 1990 ISBN 0395467225
A concise book dealing with almost 500 species. A line drawing of each plant is included plus colour photographs of about 100 species. Very good as a field guide, it only gives brief details about the plants medicinal properties.

[235] Britton. N. L. Brown. A. An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States and Canada Dover Publications. New York. 1970 ISBN 0-486-22642-5
Reprint of a 1913 Flora, but still a very useful book.

[245] Genders. R. Scented Flora of the World. Robert Hale. London. 1994 ISBN 0-7090-5440-8
An excellent, comprehensive book on scented plants giving a few other plant uses and brief cultivation details. There are no illustrations.

[257] Moerman. D. Native American Ethnobotany Timber Press. Oregon. 1998 ISBN 0-88192-453-9
Very comprehensive but terse guide to the native uses of plants. Excellent bibliography, fully referenced to each plant, giving a pathway to further information. Not for the casual reader.

Readers Comments

Plant Passporting

Rich (michael@thewitchshaven.com) Wed Sep 26 16:58:15 2001

This information has been taken from DEFRA Guide to Plant Passporting. Which places restrictions on plants which can be traded in the UK and the EU mainly because they are carriers for pests and diseases.

Beta vulgaris (Beet), Chaenomeles (Ornamental quince, Japonica), Citrus (Orange, lemon, lime, grapefruit, etc.), Cotoneaster (Cotoneaster), Crataegus (Hawthorn), Cydonia (Quince), Eriobotrya (Includes loquat), Fortunella and hybrids (Kumquat), Humulus lupulus (Hop (including ornamentals)), Malus (Apple (including ornamentals)), Mespilus (Medlar), Poncirus and hybrids (Ornamental citrus), Prunus (other than Prunus laurocerasus and Prunus lusitanica) (Includes almond, apricot, cherry, damson, greengage, nectarine, peach, plum, sloe and ornamental/flowering varieties), Pyracantha (Firethorn), Pyrus (Pear (including ornamentals)), Solanum (stolon or tuber forming types) (Potato), Sorbus (other than Sorbus intermedia) (Includes rowan and whitebeam), Stranvaesia (Stranvaesia), Vitis (Grape, includes grape vine and ornamental grape).

Many other plants require pasporting for commercial growers, these include Abies, Allium ascalonicum, Allium cepa, Allium porrum, Allium schoenoprasum, Apium graveolens, Plants of the family Araceae, Argyranthemum, Aster, Brassica, Castanea, Capsicum annuum, Cucumis, Dendranthema, Dianthus and hybrids, Euphorbia, Exacum, Fragaria, Gerbera, Gypsophila, Helianthus annuus, Impatiens (all varieties of New Guinea hybrids), Lactuca, Larix, Leucanthemum, Lupinus, Lycopersicon lycopersicum, Plants of the family Marantaceae, Medicago sativa, Plants of the family Musaceae, Nicotiana, Pelargonium, Persea, Phaseolus, Picea, Pinus, Platanus, Populus, Prunus laurocerasus and Prunus lusitanica, Pseudotsuga, Quercus, Rubus, Plants of the family Solanaceae (other than plants of stolon or tuber forming species of Solanum and their hybrids), Solanum melongena, Spinacia, Plants of the family Strelitziaceae, Tanacetum, Tsuga, Verbena.

Cross references: Plants: Beta vulgaris, Humulus lupulus. Genera: Chaenomeles, Citrus, Cotoneaster, Crataegus, Cydonia, Eriobotrya, Fortunella, Malus, Mespilus, Poncirus, Prunus, Pyracantha, Pyrus, Solanum, Sorbus, Stranvaesia, Vitis.

Vitis labrusca

Erik Johnson Sat Sep 29 06:21:21 2001

Most cultivars susceptible to Pierce's Disease. If you live in the SE USA, you'd be better off planting muscadines (Vitis rotundifolia)--which have a different flavor, or recently developed "southern" cultivars (Orlando Seedless, Daytona, etc). These might be vinfera types I have no personal experience with them. Susceptible varieties generally die within 3 years.

("Hardy to Z7," probably a severe underestimate, might confuse snowbirds into thinking that this, rather than the muscadine, is the appropriate species for the South.)

Details of Growing Condition: northern FL.

Main Search Page Help Bibliography

Plant information taken from the Plants For A Future - Species Database. Copyright (c) 1997-2003.
WEB search engine by Rich Morris - Home Page- Contact Info
Blagdon Cross, Ashwater, Beaworthy, Devon, EX21 5DF, UK.
Website: www.pfaf.org Phone: 0845 458 4719/_44(0) 1208 872963

This page (UK) http://www.comp.leeds.ac.uk/cgi-bin/pfaf/arr_html?Vitis+labrusca
This page (US) http://www.ibiblio.org/pfaf/cgi-bin/arr_html?Vitis+labrusca

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
(You can copy, distribute, display this works but: Attribution is required, its for Non-Commercial purposes, and it's Share Alike (GNUish/copyleft) i.e. has an identical license.)
We also ask that you let us know (michael@thewitchshaven.com) if you link to, redistribute, make a derived work or do anything groovy with this information.

Pathways Home :: View Cart :: Shipping & Returns :: Contact Us :: Privacy Policy :: Philosophy :: The Witchs Haven

We make no claims of magical effects or supernatural powers for any item in this catalog. In spite of legendary attributes or occult and craft tradition, such items are offered as curios only and beliefs concerning their magical effectiveness are related only for historical interest.