Northern Fox Grape

One of the approximately 30 American species or wild vines with the full botanical name Vitis labrusca L.. It was already described in 1753 by the Swedish naturalist Carl von Linné (1707-1778) in his new nomenclature (the L. in the botanical name refers to him). However, he referred to the description already given in 1623 as "Vitis sylvestris virginiana" by the Swiss botanist Caspar Bauhin (1560-1624). Vitis labrusca is the longest known American wild vine. Already at the beginning of the 17th century, pioneers in the USA tried unsuccessfully to obtain edible wine from it. Together with the two species Vitis mustangensis and Vitis shuttleworthii, it forms the group Labruscae.

In the course of time there have been several name changes, so confusingly many different botanical names occur in old sources. These are for example Vitis blandii Prince, Vitis Canina Raf., Vitis catawba Hort., Vitis ferruginga Raf., Vitis labrusca var. Subeden tata Fernald, Vitis labrusca var. Typica Regel, Vitis latifolia Raf., Vitis luteola Raf., Vitis sylvestris virginiana Bauh, Vitis taurina Walter, Vitis vinifera sylvestris americana Pluk, Vitis vinifera var. Labrusca Kuntze and Vitis vulpina Marshall. Trivial synonyms include Black Fox, Concord Grape, Fox Grape, Niagara Grape, Northern Fox Grape, Northern Muscadine, Parra Brava, Parron, Skunk Grape, Swamp Grape, Vid Silvestre, Vigne Lambruche and Vigne Cotonneuse.

The vine is found mainly in the east of the USA as far as the...