Synonyms

Vitis munsoniana Simpson; V. floridana Rafinesque. Local names: Bird Grape, Everbearing Grape, Mustang Grape du Sud.

Historical and Geographical Overview

The species was specified in 1885 by J.-H. Simpson and dedicated to T.-V. Munson. It was introduced into France, in ampelographic collections, in 1887.

The geographical range is strictly confined to the southern part of Florida (USA), where it inhabits swampy, highly fertile, and very hot regions. Wild populations have been recorded in Manatee County, Orange County (on the shores of Lake Jessup), around Miami, and along the shores of Lake Worth in Dade County—the most marshy region of all Florida. Confined to a nearly tropical, humid, and highly fertile environment, V. munsoniana is even more sensitive to cold temperatures than V. rotundifolia.

Ecological observations indicate that in Florida, as is the case for many Ampelideae in tropical countries, the flowering and maturation of V. munsoniana are simultaneous and continuous for a long period of the growing season.

Agrobiological and Cultural Characteristics

In its natural habitat, the vine remains slender and displays low vigor. It grows on bushes in low-lying and rich areas. A few rare adventitious roots form on the branches. The species shares the fundamental characteristics of the subgenus Muscadinia: simple tendrils, lenticellate canes, and the total absence of nodal diaphragms.

The cultural introduction of this grapevine in Europe has yielded no practical success, as the vines fail to prosper under local conditions. They could potentially find favorable cultural environments in the lowlands of Indo-China or Madagascar for the production of very inferior wines. V. munsoniana shows average resistance to chlorosis in calcareous soils and is highly refractory to propagation from cuttings; the method of sowing recommended in America is impractical for cultivation. In viticultural programs, this vine remains strictly a collection plant.

Technological Properties

The berries within the thyrse inflorescence ripen nearly regularly at the same time. V. munsoniana yields musts that are richer in sugar and tannin than those of V. rotundifolia. However, these musts remain significantly inferior to those obtained from varieties of the subgenus Euvitis, rendering the species unsatisfactory for quality winemaking.

Systematics and Anatomo-Morphological Characteristics

V. munsoniana forms, together with V. rotundifolia, the subgenus Muscadinia. It is clearly distinguished from the latter species by its small berries, its regular thyrse inflorescences, its generally more slender vegetation, and its smaller, less ruminate seeds.

Anatomical differences include secondary phloem bundles tangential to the medullary rays that are more compact, and larger stomata on the leaf blade.

Morphological Description of Organs:

  • Vine (Trunk): Low vigor, with a spreading and somewhat bushy habit. Trunk slender with very hard wood; bark separating in narrow, highly adherent strands.
  • Buds: Very small, conical, enveloped in a sparse rubiginous (rusty-red) down.
  • Young Leaves: Flattening immediately upon emerging from the bud, with highly dissected margins; translucent, shiny, and varnished yellow on both surfaces.
  • Canes (Shoots): Long, slender, sometimes filiform; secondary ramifications are numerous. Nodes are weakly swollen and barely apparent. Canes are dark blackish-red upon lignification, provided with numerous small gray lenticels and fine striations. In the herbaceous state, the young angular shoots are purple-red, glabrous, and shiny, with four well-marked ridges towards the apex. Wood tender with a wide medulla (pith), which is denser at the level of the nodes where diaphragms are completely absent. Internodes are short.
  • Tendrils: Discontinuous, long, slender, simple.
  • Leaves: Small, as wide as they are long, orbicular (at most 7 by 7 cm); slightly asymmetrical, weakly hollowed like a cup towards the petiole sinus. Entire, with a well-developed tablier; petiole sinus deep V-shaped, almost closed, sometimes with overlapping margins. Teeth are few, wide, triangular, and deep, with straight (not concave) edges, oriented perpendicular to the leaf blade (normal to the limbe); acute separation sinuses, featuring small secondary teeth at the base of some main teeth. Leaf blade thick, brittle, smooth; dark green and dull on the upper surface, light green and relatively shiny on the lower surface. Veins are prominent and purple-tinted at their origin; sub-veins marked in relief. Petiole short, cylindrical, slender, glabrous, purple-colored, and channeled (canaliculate), forming a right angle with the plane of the leaf blade.
  • Flowers: Small, conforming to the characteristic structure of the subgenus (Fig. 637).
  • Clusters and Berries: Cluster medium-small, conically shaped, loose, containing up to 40 berries. Peduncle short and slender; pedicels long, slender, with a flattened discoid torus. Berries small, spherical, pruinose, dark violaceous-red, firm; skin relatively thin, weakly elastic; pulp non-melting, with a flat and somewhat harsh flavor.
  • Seeds: Small (4 to 5 mm long by 2.5 to 3 mm wide), elongated and uniform in dimensions throughout their length, flattened or trigonal; ash-gray or gray-chocolate color, shiny. Beak short and thin; pits barely marked, with irregular striations across their entire path. Chalaza oval, elongated, prominent, located at the center of the seed, surrounded by a narrow depressed groove from which numerous fine radiating striations originate; raphe absent, replaced by a furrow that surrounds the base of the seed and extends on the other side of the chalaza to the beak (Fig. 635, Fig. 636).

Selection and Hybridization

Due to its lack of vigor and restricted adaptation, the species has not been utilized for commercial breeding. A. Millardet established that the small-fruited varieties reported by earlier authors based on E. E. Ropes' accounts are merely wild populations of V. munsoniana. Reciprocal crosses between Muscadinia and Euvitis obtained by Millardet and de Grasset showed complete absorption of traits by Euvitis, resulting in false hybrids. In the ampelographic dictionary, only two confirmed hybrids by T.-V. Munson (La Salle, San Jacinto) from a V. rotundifolia × V. lincecumii cross are recorded.