Muscadine (Vitis rotundifolia Michx., syn. Muscandinia rotundifolia (Michx.) Small): The Resilient, Native Grape of the Southeastern U.S

Abstract

Angiosperms are well adapted to tolerate biotic and abiotic stresses in their native environment. However, the growth habit of native plants may not be suited for cultivation and their fruits may not be desirable for consumption. Adapting a plant for cultivation and commercial appeal through breeding and selection may accentuate weaknesses in pest tolerance. The transition of muscadine from a wild, native plant to a cultivated crop has taken place over the last 150 years. Early production primarily involved cloning elite wild selections; few pest management inputs were needed since the material was genetically similar to the native plant. Over time, emphasis was placed on the refinement of pruning, trellising, and other cultural inputs to increase productivity and commercial implementation. In turn, breeders developed newer cultivars with greater productivity and commercial appeal. Many modern muscadine cultivars remain tolerant to biotic pests and are adapted to a hot and humid climate. The primary focus of this review is to provide a descriptive context of muscadine as a native American, perennial fruit crop that requires minimal pest management in hot, humid climates relative to recently introduced European bunch grapes. Inherent muscadine traits resulting in fewer pesticide inputs make them worthy of being planted across considerable acreages; yet, muscadines remain a niche crop. We conclude that muscadines suffer from their short history of cultivation in a confined region and would benefit from breeding and marketing efforts to increase consumption, commercial acceptance, and awareness.

A Review of the Potential Benefits of Plants Producing Berries in Skin Disorders

“…Muscadine ( Vitis rotundifolia Michx.) was the first American grape to be cultivated in the United States [ 93 ], and it has been studied for potential anticancer properties [ 94 ].…”

Untangling the Evolution of American Wild Grapes: Admixed Species and How to Find Them

“…The gene flow, corresponding to migration edge C (Figure 3 and Table 1), seemed to trace back to an ancient form of Vitis, most probabily an ancestor of the current subgenus Vitis subsequent to the divergence of the two subgenera. Today we know that Vitis x Muscadinia hybrids are rare and normally sterile as a result of having an odd number of chromosomes (Hickey et al, 2019), but still linkage map analysis indicates an overall high degree of collinearity between the physical maps of the two subgenera (Lewter et al, 2019). It is likely that the ancient grapes of subgenus Vitis were more similar to the muscadines than modern grapes (Lewter et al, 2019), which could explain the origin of the migration shift toward the modern Muscadinia.…”

Evaluation of mitotic activity in tapetal cells of grapevine (Vitis L.)

“…Muscadinia rotundifolia (Michx.) Small., according to The Plant List (2013); Hickey et al (2019)] and V. vinifera 'Cabernet Sauvignon' (n=19) using a Single-molecule real-time reads combined with optical maps technique demonstrated that, in the past, there could have been a reduction in chromosome number by a fusion process involving chromosomes 7 and 20 in the ancestor of V. rotundifolia which gave rise to the ancestor of Vitis species with n=19. From then on, the two chromosome groups evolved independently.…”