🌿 Vitis berlandieri

Vitis berlandieri is a wild American grape species. It grows in the southern United States and Mexico, mostly on dry, chalky soils. Wine is not made from it, since the berries are small and sour, but the species has an important trait: it tolerates limestone well.

This helped European growers after phylloxera destroyed many vineyards in the 19th century. It turned out that the roots of American species resist this insect. European vines began to be grafted onto American rootstocks. But on limestone soils ordinary American roots struggled and turned yellow, and that is where berlandieri helped.

It was crossed with other species, such as Vitis riparia, to produce rootstocks suited to chalk and limestone land. Such rootstocks are used, among other places, in Champagne and other areas with lime.

The species belongs to the grapevines in general and is tied to limestone.