Species

Vitis vinifera

Common Name(s)

grape

Family

Vitaceae

Flora Category

Vascular - Exotic

NVS Species Code

VITVIN

The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.

Structural Class

Dicotyledonous Lianes and Related Trailing Plants

Habitat

Around old gardens and dump sites, sometimes along roadsides.

Features

Deciduous woody liane, climbing via tendrils (usually forked). The young shoots and leaves are greyish white or pale brown, mature leaves green above, whitish or pale grey tomentose below, up to 17x18cm, and coarsely toothed. The flowers are green and fragrant, berries 0.7-1.5cm diameter, black and sweet.

Similar Taxa

Grapes are very distinctive plants. Only 1 species is recognised as naturalised in New Zealand, but many plants may not be V. vinifera. True V. vinifera has tendrils in every 3rd leaf. V. labrusca has tendrils in every node. Cultivated hybrids have been referred to as V. labruscana have intermittant tendrils.

Flowering

October, November, December

Flower Colours

Green

Year Naturalised

1870

Origin

Mediterranean

Reason for Introduction

Agricultural

Life Cycle and Dispersal

True V. vinifera is very susceptible to philloxera. Reproduces mainly by stem layering (Webb et al., 1988). Fruit is freely produced but most wild spread is not by seed. Many of the cultivated grapes are actually hybrids which may affect spread from seed.

This page last updated on 31 Jul 2014