Wine Grape

Several horticultural varieties of grape are grown in Pakistan, many of them are hybrid between Vitis rotundifolia Mich., Vitis labrusca L., Vitis rupestris Sch. or Vitis gegas. Md. Asghar Ginai,( Treatise on Hort. 426-439.1968) mentions about 36 varieties of grapes in Pakistan.

A large shrub, main stem stout, reaching a girth of 1.5 m. Leaves orbicular, cordate, pentagonal or dissected, 10.5-20 x 7-15 cm, serrate or irregularly dentate, acuminate, cordate, glabrous or glabrescent above, sparsely grey tomentose beneath and glabrescent membranous; petiole 4-10 cm long. Peduncle 4-5 cm long, often bearing unbranched tendril. Flower bisexual or functionally pistillate with shorter sterile stamens, greenish in colour, c. 1.5 x 1 mm; pedicel c. 2 mm long, wiry, elongated and thickened in fruit. Calyx minute, cupular. Petals 5, c. 1.5 mm long, ± lanceolate. Disc with 5 hypogynous glands, adnate to the base of ovary. Berry variable in size, shape and colour, 6-22 mm long, purple, black-violet, red, pinkish or greenish, 2-4 seeded, with juicy sweet or sour pulp. Seed pyriform or ovoid, 5-6 mm long, beaked.

Branchlets terete, with longitudinal ridges, glabrous or sparsely pilose; tendrils bifurcate. Leaves simple, conspicuously 3-5-lobed or cleft; stipules caducous; petiole 4-9 cm, nearly glabrous; leaf blade oval, 7-18 × 6-16 cm, basal veins 5, lateral veins 4 or 5 pairs, veinlets inconspicuously raised, base deeply cordate, notch rounded, 2 sides usually overlapping to nearly so, margin 22-27-toothed on each side, teeth large, irregular, and sharp, glabrous or sparsely pilose, apex of midlobes acute. Panicle sparse or dense, opposite to leaves, basal branches well developed, 10-20 cm; peduncle 2-4 cm, glabrous or with sparse arachnoid tomentum. Pedicel 1.5-2.5 mm, glabrous. Buds obovoid, 2-3 mm, apex rounded. Calyx glabrous, undulate. Filaments filiform, 0.6-1 mm; anthers yellow, oval, 0.4-0.8 mm. Pistil entirely abortive in male flowers; ovary oval; style short; stigma expanded. Berry globose or elliptic, 1.5-2 cm in diam. Seeds obovoid to obelliptic, apex subrounded, chalazal knot elliptic, raphe slightly raised, ventral holes broadly furrowed upward ca. 1/4 from base. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Aug-Sep. 2n = 38*.

Distribution: Native habitat unknown, probably native of Caspian and Caucaus region of S.W. Asia, cultivated extensively in Cent. Europe, Mediteranian, region, Iran, China, Japan, N. & S. Africa, Australia, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. In Pakistan it is cultivated in Baluchistan, Chitral, Swat, Baltistan, Astor & Kashmir.

Fl. Per.: May -July. Fr. Per:August-October.

Cultivated throughout China for grapes and wine-making [native to SW Asia and SE Europe].