In grapevines, only the genus Vitis is of importance for viticulture. The genus Vitis is divided into the two subgenera Vitis subg. Euvitis (with 60 species) and Vitis subg. Muscadinia (with 1 species). The subgenus Vitis subg. Euvitis is divided into an American, an Asian and a European group according to geographical occurrence. In the European group, there is probably only one species (species) Vitis vinifera as a result of the ice age, under which all wild and domesticated grape varieties of the European grapevine are subsumed. The name means "wine-bearing vine". The species Vitis vinifera is divided into two subspecies.
The subspecies Vitis vinifera subspez. sylvestris is the wild parent form of today's noble vines. It was already used in prehistoric times, but plays no role in modern viticulture. The second subspecies, Vitis vinifera subspez. vinifera (obsolete name Vitis vinifera ssp. sativa), is a cultivated variety that has been gradually bred out by humans. This includes all of the approximately 8,000 to 10,000 cultivated European grape varieties, of which only a few hundred are important in viticulture. However, the abbreviated terms Vitis vinifera or Vinifera are used when referring to the parentage of grape varieties.
Vitis vinifera ssp. sylvestris
The wild subspecies is also known as Vitis vinifera ssp. sylvestris Gmelin (also Rhenish wild vine). The part of the name "sylvestris" means "living in the wild". Gmelin refers to the botanist Johann Georg Gmelin (1709-1755), who first separated this subspecies. This species is dioecious, i.e. there are male and female plants, each with unisexual flower buds. Its range extends from the Caucasus to the southern Mediterranean and northwards to the Danube floodplains of the Lobau near Vienna (Austria) and into the Rhine valley in Germany.
Vitis vinifera ssp. caucasica Vavilov
A regional variety of sylvestris is...
