VITIS CHAMPINI 

V. champini. Robust climber; leaves reniform to very broad-ovate, cobwebby 
or pubescent when young but becoming dark glossy green above, lower surface 
pale and at first tomentose; fruit about in in diameter, black. Texas. 
--—- Hortus Second, 1941 
a D 
Vitis Champini, Planchon 
Plant: Robust, upright, climbing 30 to 40 feet high, with aspect some- 
what between V. Doaniana and V- candicans, with more numerous lateral branches 
as in V. rupestris. 
Roots: In one year seedlings axial, tapering downward; wiry, penetrating | 
very deeply and fully resistant, rooting in the firmest very limy clay soils | 
as well as in sandy land. 
Wood: Growing tips less leafy than V. Doaniana, more than V. candicans 
covered with whitish tomentum which mostly disappears with maturity. ‘Wood 
at first somewhat angled becoming cylindricel; at first green, becoming dark, 
dull reddish-brown; bark of 01d wood rather finely checked and persistent; on 
young wood after first year, flaking off easily, leaving surface beneath of a 
glossy reddish-brown color; wood firm; nodes swollen, straight; diaphragm 1/16! 
to 1/12", nearly plane; bud medium, subglobose’ when dormant, large rusty dark green 
when expanding; tendrils medium, 5" to 5" long, once forked, rarely twice, thinly 
tomentose; internodes 14" to 4", finely and regularly striated; pith rather 
thicker in diameter than surrounding annual wood. 

Leaves: Stipules 1/8" to 1/5" long by nearly as wide, broad sub-ovate; 
thinly tomentose, pale pink at first, browning after two or three days exposure 
in opening leves, petiole 1" to 2" long, cylindrical, with an obscure groove 
on upper side, thinly wooly; blade 2k" to 4" wide, midrib 2" to 3" long, broad 
cordate in outline; basal sinus broad, double curved, acute at insertion of pet- 
iole; margins rarely lobed, then only with slight shoulders; apex very short, 
acute; teeth broad, short, irregular, obtuse dentate, with small mucron, usually 
scalloped betweenltecth; venation from the generally 6 pairs of ribs; upper 
surface of blade at first thinly tomentase, becomming dark glossy green at full =~ 
growth and slightly rugose; lower surface much paler, never glossy, thinly wooly, 
becoming nearly devoid of tomentum at maturity; foliage has less tomentum and is 
smaller than V. Doaniana or V. candicans. 
Cluster: Fertile,- 14" to 3" long, shouldered, shoulder half the length 
of the main part otherwise simple; peduncle generally as long as cluster; ped- 
icels smooth, 1/16" to 1/20" long: staminate,- twice or more as large as the 
fertile, 32" to 4" long, shouldered, tomentose, greenish pedicels 1/12 tol/10" long. 
Flowers: Fertile,- large stamens, short recurved, pollen impotent, pistil 
thick with shortthick style and large stigma; staminate,- otamens medium 
ascending, polleh very abundant. 
