Woodlands and forest margins in eastern North America from Nova Scotia to Ontario south to Louisiana and Florida
Colors
Green when young turning to dark red to black
Shapes
Berries are 2 cm in diameter and globoid to globoid-ovoid in shape. Fruits are sweetish which contain 6.6 - 16.6% sugars.
Taste
Sweet-tart to sweet with musky overtones
Health benefits
Maintain healthy breast tissue, Boost your immunity, Anti-inflammatory, Decrease blood pressure and stay sharp
Vitis labrusca, commonly known as fox grape or Concorde grape, is a woody, deciduous vine that climbs by tendrils. The plant is native to woodlands and forest margins in eastern North America from Nova Scotia to Ontario south to Louisiana and Florida. It can climb to the tops of tall trees or sprawl horizontally over low-growing shrubs. Some of the popular common names of the plant are Concorde grape, Fox grape, Grapevine rootstock, Skunk grape, Wild vines, Northern fox grape, American grape, slipskin grape, slip-skin grape, Bland’s grape, Isabella grape and Labruscan grape. Genus name is the Latin name for the old world vineyard grape (Vitis vinifera). Specific epithet comes from Latin meaning wild vine.
Plant Description
Fox grape is a woody, deciduous vine that climbs up to 12m high. The plant is found growing in lowland to upland forests, esp. disturbed habitats, thickets, roadsides, fencerows, meadows or sandy hills, wet to mesic sandy thickets, borders of sandy woodlands, riverbanks, areas along railroads, and wet to moist sand prairies. The plant prefers a deep rich moist well-drained moderately fertile loam. It also grows best in a calcareous soil. Young shoots are light green and more or less covered with woolly brown hairs, but becoming less hairy with age. Trunk bark is brown and very shredded, while mature woody stems are light brown to reddish brown, smooth, and sometimes finely grooved.
Leaves
Widely spaced leaves are alternate along the shoots and stems. They are 4-8 inches long and a little less across. The leaves are oval-cordate in overall shape. They usually have 3 palmate lobes that are broad and shallow, while their margins are finely and shallowly dentate (denticulate). The upper leaf surface is dull green (or yellowish green in bright sunlight) and hairless, while the lower surface is brownish white from woolly hairs. On the lower leaf surface, there is a mat of appressed white-woolly hairs, over which there is a layer of longer brown-woolly hairs. The latter have a tendency to fade away with age. The texture of the leaves is somewhat leathery and their venation is palmate. The slender petioles are 4-6 inches long and more or less covered with woolly brown hairs that tend to fade away with age. Directly opposite from each leaf, there is either a forked tendril or flowers/fruit.
Flower
Flowers are about 1/8 inches (3 mm.) across and greenish yellow in appearance. These flowers can be unisexual (male or female) or perfect. Each flower has 5 deciduous petals, an insignificant calyx that has been reduced to a flat disk, and the reproductive organs. Each male or perfect flower has 5 prominent stamens, while each female or perfect flower has a superior ovary with a short style. The blooming period occurs during late spring or early summer and lasts about 1 week. The flowers have a sweet musty fragrance.
Fruit
Fertile female flowers are replaced by berries that are arranged in drooping panicles about 3-8 inches long. After they mature during the late summer or the fall, these berries are ½-¾ inches across and globoid to globoid-ovoid in shape. They are bluish black (rarely amber) and either with or without bloom on the outside, while on the inside they have juicy flesh and 2-6 seeds. The flavor of ripe berries varies from sweet-tart to sweet with musky overtones. Seeds are rounded with a short beak, 5-8 mm long and 4-6 mm broad.
Listed below are few of the health benefits of Fox grape
1. Decrease blood pressure
Fox grape contains many flavonoids, including resveratrol, which can help decrease blood pressure by improving the fluidity of the blood. Resveratrol also relaxes the arterial walls to allow sufficient circulation and decrease the pressure in the arteries.
2. Maintain healthy breast tissue
Fox grapes contain resveratrol, which protects the DNA in our cells against mutations that occur. Studies show that resveratrol is specifically beneficial in protecting breast tissue from the mutations that can take place in certain breast cancers.
3. Boost your immunity
Fox grapes have been shown to increase the production of the cells in our body that fight off disease and foreign invaders. Boosting these natural killer cells and T-cells will keep your immune system in tip-top shape during cold and flu season.
4. Eat grapes to stay sharp
Many degenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s and dementia, begin with the accumulation of certain proteins and foreign bodies in the brain. Fox grapes have been shown to prevent the accumulation of these potentially harmful substances. This helps keep your brain sharp and your nervous system healthy.
5. Anti-inflammatory
Fox grapes contain a variety of polyphenols that can reduce the inflammatory response in the body. These grapes also have the antioxidant ability to wash up free radicals in the body and keep you looking younger, longer.
Traditional uses and benefits of Fox grape
The leaves are hepatic.
An infusion has been used in the treatment of diarrhea, hepatitis, stomach aches, fevers, headaches and thrush.
Externally, the leaves are poultice and applied to sore breasts, rheumatic joints and headaches.
Wilted leaves have been applied as a poultice to the breasts to draw away soreness after the birth of a child.
An infusion of the bark has been used to treat urinary complaints.
Leaves, roots, and bark are used to treat diarrhea, ‘bad blood’, liver problems, irregular urination, and breast soreness after childbirth.
Poultices of leaves can be applied for topical pain relief or fever.
Ayurvedic health benefits of Fox grape
Diarrhea: Make an infusion of Fox grape dried leaves. Take it twice a day.
RheumatoidArthritis: Make a poultice of fox grape fresh leaves. Apply it on the painful joints.
Urinaryproblems: Make an infusion of fox grape bark powder. Take it, twice a day.
Culinary Uses
Fruit can be consumed raw or dried for winter use.
The fruit can also be made into pies, preserves etc.
Young leaves can be consumed after cooking.
Pleasant acid flavor, they are cooked as greens or can be wrapped around other foods and then baked, when they impart a pleasant flavor.
Young tendrils can be consumed raw or cooked.
Sap should not be harvested in quantity or it will weaken the plant.
Oil is obtained from the seed.
Fruits are made into beverages, breads, and cakes, or simply eaten raw.
Other facts
Yellow dye is obtained from the fresh or dried leaves.
Plant is used as a root stock for the common grape, V. vinifera, especially in areas where phylloxera disease is prevalent.
Decoction of roots can be mixed with horse feed as a veterinary aid.
