Vitis rotundifolia

One of around 30 American species or wild vines with the full botanical name Vitis rotundifolia Michx. The name honours the French botanist André Michaux (1746-1802). It is the only species of the Muscadinia vine subgenus. It therefore does not belong to the vine subgenus Vitis like the other American and Asian species and the European Vitis vinifera. Strictly speaking, the name should therefore be Muscadinia rotundifolia. In most sources, however, the name Vitis ritundifolia is used. Trivial synonyms are Bird Grape, Bullace Grape, Bullit Grape, Currant Grape, Muscadine Grape, Roanoke, Southern Fox Grape and Vigne Musquée.

Muscadinia varieties

The Muscadinia species is divided into three varieties. Vitis rotundifolia Michx. var. munsoniana is restricted to Florida. Vitis rotundifolia Michx. var. rotundifolia colonises the south-eastern quarter of the USA from Indiana to Texas. It thrives best where cotton grows, in bushes, along rivers, in swamps, but also on sandy valley floors. And Vitis rotundifolia Michx. var. popenoei, with the trivial synonym Totoloche Grape, thrives mainly in subtropical and tropical climates. It occurs in central Mexico and some Central American countries such as Belize and Guatemala. The Popenoei variety was previously regarded as a separate species. There are ideas to elevate the subgenus Muscadinia to a genus and to replace the current division into three varieties with three species.