Vitis
for those interested in
the Grape
Vitis is a community of interest within The Plant People of Nature Folks. It's a hobby group, but with serious intent of working with, collecting all subspecies, and mastering knowledge about the genus Vitis, at least those of the Eastern US. It will develop a membership, web site unit, and who knows about the future.

Ideas are abundant, but they will change with individuals and shared interests and opportunities. They will likely seek grants for their work, develop strong working relations with regional herbaria, and will likely become closely involved with:

• Vineyards (related to species and hybrids of commercial importance)
• Gardens (developing a site , a garden or special vineyard, for the collection and identification of all wild grape species)
• The Forest Group (related to grapes as tree-competition plants)
• The Unified Laboratory (for soils analyses, fruit properties, an automated food habits analysis system and thus species-specific seed identification)
• The Rural Knowledge Base (for library studies and developing a knowledge base)
• The Products Group (for studying potentials for use of vines in ornaments...stabilizing harvest rates so that they do not reduce plant vigor; there may be other specialty products developed (e.g., tendrils used in home canning of pickles)
• The Wild Turkey Group (as related to annual food supplies, production, cultivation, and grape production improvement for wild birds and mammals and describing its full, complex role in ecosystems and conditions of its growth)
• GPSence (GPS location of large wild grape arbors for analyzing conditions (using GIS) at such arbors)

The group honors Prof. A.B. Massey, noted Virginia botanist, who started the Virginia herbarium and wrote an Extension pamphlet on The Grapes of Virginia.

Perhaps you will share ideas with me about some of the topic(s) above at RHGiles@RuralSystem.com.

Maybe we can work together ... for the good of us all ... for a long time. Return to the top of page.