silverleaf grape

not listed

N4N5 - Apparently Secure to Secure

S3 - Vulnerable

Threatened

FAC - Facultative

FACU - Facultative upland

FACU - Facultative upland

Silverleaf grape is a high-climbing, perennial, woody vine rising from a taproot.

The vine of the current season is reddish-brown and hairy. When they mature they become covered with brown bark. On old growth the bark sheds in long, thin strips. It extends up to 35′.

Tendrils form opposite most leaves but are lacking every third leaf.

The leaves are alternate, 2 ″ to 8″ long, round to egg-shaped, and lobed with a heart-shaped base. They are yellowish-green on the upper side, bluish green to silvery on the underside. They are on long leaf stalks. The lobing pattern is highly variable, even on the same plant, but they are usually divided into 3 to forward-pointing lobes. Leaf margins are sharply toothed. Young leaves are covered with cobwebby, rust-colored on both sides. As they mature the uppersides become hairless or mostly hairless.

Male and female flowers are found in separate inflorescences on the same plant. The inflorescences are borne opposite most leaves but are lacking every third leaf. They are 2″ to 6″ long.

Flowers are inconspicuous, tiny, greenish white or greenish-yellow and fragrant. They have 5 petals.

The fruit is a black or dark purple, ¼″ to ⅜″ thick juicy berry with 2 to 4 seeds. The berry has a whitish, waxy bloom at maturity.

6″ to 24″

Greenish-white or greenish-yellow

Wild grape (Vitis riparia) leaves are green on the underside.

Canada moonseed (Menispermum canadense) leaves are bluish-green and untoothed. There are no tendrils. The fruits are poisonous, and contain a single, crescent-shaped seed.

Moist. Floodplain forests, wooded swamps, upland woods, riverbanks, thickets, and roadsides. Full sun.

Late spring

Sources

2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 28, 29, 30.

The sightings in light green are citizen science observations posted on iNaturalist. The sighting in Carver County is at the Minnesota Landscape Arbortetum. The sighting in Blue Earth County is in a residential yard. Neither of these are “outside of cultivation.”

Native

Rare