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Grape

Grape

|- style="text-align:center;" ! style="background: lightgreen;" | Scientific classification |- style="text-align:center;" |

|- valign=top |Kingdom:||Plantae |- valign=top |Division:||Magnoliophyta |- valign=top |Class:||Magnoliopsida |- valign=top |Order:||Vitales |- valign=top |Family:||Vitaceae |- valign=top |Genus:||Vitis |} |- style="text-align:center; background:lightgreen;" !Species |- | Vitis acerifolia
Vitis aestivalis
Vitis amurensis
Vitis arizonica
Vitis x bourquina
Vitis californica
Vitis x champinii
Vitis cinerea
Vitis x doaniana
Vitis girdiana
Vitis labrusca
Vitis x labruscana
Vitis monticola
Vitis mustangensis
Vitis x novae-angliae
Vitis palmata
Vitis riparia
Vitis rotundifolia
Vitis rupestris
Vitis shuttleworthii
Vitis tiliifolia
Vitis vinifera
Vitis vulpina |} A grape is the fruit of a vine in the family Vitaceae. It is commonly used for making grape juice, jelly, wine and raisins, or can be eaten raw. Grapes constitute approximately 50% of all fruit grown in the world.

Many species of grape exist including:

  • Vitis vinifera, the European winemaking grapes
  • Vitis labrusca , the North American table and grape juice grapes, sometimes used for wine
  • Vitis riparia , a wild grape of North America, sometimes used for winemaking
  • Vitis rotundifolia , the muscadines, used for jelly and sometimes wine
  • Vitis aestivalis , the variety Norton is used for winemaking
  • Vitis lincecumii (also called Vitis aestivalis var. lincecumii), Vitis berlandieri (also called Vitis cinerea var. helleri), Vitis cinerea, Vitis rupestris are used for making hybrid wine grapes and for pest-resistant rootstocks.

Hybrids also exist, primarily crosses of V. vinifera with one or more varieties of V. labrusca, V. riparia or V. aestivalis. Hybrids tend to be less susceptible to frost and disease (notably phylloxera), but their wine has little of the characteristic "foxy" odor of labrusca.

Currently, a large fraction of the grape crop goes to producing grape juice to be used as a sweetener for fruits canned 'with no added sugar' and '100% natural'.

A bunch of grapes
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A bunch of grapes
Autumn Royal grapes
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Autumn Royal grapes
Red and green grapes
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Red and green grapes
Red grapes
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Red grapes
Flame seedless grapes
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Flame seedless grapes
Foliage of the Concord grape plant
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Foliage of the Concord grape plant

Wild grapes are often considered a nuisance weed as they cover other plants and form thick entangling vines.




External links

  • Integrated Taxonomic Information System entry for Grape famiily http://www.itis.usda.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_val
    ue=28600



Last updated: 02-08-2005 16:36:23
Last updated: 02-17-2005 08:10:09