Vascular Plants of North Carolina
Account for Florida Grape - Vitis simpsonii   Munson
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Section 6 » Family Vitaceae
AuthorMunson
DistributionThis species occurs essentially in the Coastal Plain, with most records for the northern portions. It apparently does not occur in the Piedmont and Mountains, except along the eastern edge of the Piedmont.

Ranges north only to southeastern VA, and south to southern FL and west to MS.
AbundanceApparently uncommon to fairly common in the northern Coastal Plain, but inexplicably scarce in the central and southern portions, though this is not likely a collecting bias.
HabitatThis is a wetland species found in bottomland forests, wooded stream banks, marshes (at least along the edges), and wet thickets.
PhenologyFlowers from late May into June, and fruits from August to October.
IdentificationThis is a high-climbing deciduous woody vine, like essentially all other Vitis species. As it is a recent split from the V. cinerea complex, as is V. baileyana, these two species are quite similar. Both have angular branchlets as opposed to rounded; however, this species has pubescent to tomentose branchlets, whereas V. baileyana has generally smooth branchlets. See Weakley (2018) for other characters. Most of the species in this genus are difficult to separate from each other, so this species, recently considered as one of several varieties of V. cinerea, is certainly tricky to identify by most biologists.
Taxonomic CommentsWeakley (2018) has split this taxon out as a good species; most references still list it as V. cinerea var. floridana plus V. cinerea var. cinerea.

Other Common Name(s)Simpson's Grape
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Global RankG4G5TNR [GNR]
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