Grapes -- Varieties -- United States; Viticulture -- United States
The habitat of this grape extends from southern Oklahoma, as a
northern limit, southwesterly into Mexico. The western boundary is the
Pecos River. It is found on dry, alluvial, sandy or limestone bottoms
or on limestone bluff lands and is said to be especially abundant
along upland ravines. Candicans grows well on limestone lands,
enduring as much as 60 per cent of carbonate of lime in the soil. The
species blooms shortly before Labrusca and a week later than Vulpina.
It requires the long hot summers of its native country and will stand
extreme drouth but is not hardy to cold, 10 or 15 degrees below zero
killing the vine outright unless protected; and a lesser degree of
cold injuring it severely. The berries, which are large for wild
vines, have thin skins under which there is a pigment which gives
them, when first ripe, a fiery, pungent taste but which partly
disappears with maturity. The berries are very persistent, clinging to
the pedicel long after ripe. Candicans is difficult to propagate from
cuttings. Its roots resist phylloxera fairly well. It makes a good
stock for Vinifera vines in its native country, but owing to the
difficulty of propagation is seldom used for that purpose. In the
early days of Texas, it was much used for the making of wine but as it
is deficient in sugar, and as the must retains the acrid, pungent
flavor, it does not seem to be well adapted for this purpose. It is
not regarded as having great promise for southern horticulture and
certainly has none for the North.
10. _Vitis Labrusca_, Linn. Fox-Grape.
Vine vigorous, stocky, climbing; shoots cylindrical, densely
pubescent; diaphragms medium to thick; tendrils continuous,
strong, bifid or trifid. Leaves with long, cordate stipules;
leaf-blade large, thick, broadly cordate or round; entire or
three-lobed, frequently notched; sinuses rounded; petiolar sinus
variable in depth and width, V-shaped; margin with shallow,
acute-pointed, scalloped teeth; upper surface rugose, dark green,
on young leaves pubescent, becoming glabrous when mature; lower
surface covered with dense pubescence, more or less whitish on
young leaves, becoming dun-colored when mature. Clusters more or
less compound, usually shouldered, compact; pedicels thick;
peduncle short. Berries round; skin thick, covered with bloom,
with strong musky or foxy aroma. Seeds two to four, large,
distinctly notched, beak short; chalaza oval in shape, indistinct,
showing as a depression; raphe, a groove.
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