Vitis vinifera - Grape Vine

Grape Vine is a liana growing up to 30 m tall, with flaky bark. The leaves are alternate, palmately lobed, 5-20 cm long and broad. Flowers are borne in large inflorescences carried on stalks 4-5 cm long, often bearing unbranched tendril. Flower are bisexual or functionally pistillate with shorter sterile stamens, greenish in colour, about 1.5 x 1 mm, flower-stalk about2 mm long, wiry, elongated and thickened in fruit. Calyx is minute, cup-shaped. Petals are 5, about 1.5 mm long, lanceshaped. The fruit is a berry, known as a grape, in the wild species it is 6 mm in diameter and ripens dark purple to blackish with a pale wax bloom. In cultivated plants it is usually much larger, up to 3 cm long, and can be green, red, or purple-black. The species typically occurs in humid forests and streamsides. The grape is eaten fresh, processed to make wine or juice, or dried to produce raisins. Cultivars of Vitis vinifera form the basis of the majority of wines produced around the world. All of the familiar wine varieties belong to Vitis vinifera, which is cultivated on every continent except for Antarctica, and in all the major wine regions of the world. Grape Vine is native to the Mediterranean region, central Europe, and southwestern Asia, from Morocco and Portugal north to southern Germany and east to northern Iran.