Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Mustang Grape

I was very intrigued by this plant when I found it a month ago. The five-pointed leaves, the way it tried to vine it's way up the grass and just kept flopping farther day every day that I passed it, it was just very interesting. There's something about the leaves that really just beautiful.
The leaves are rich green on the top and lighter, almost white, on the bottom. The vine itself is reddish brown, and can climb quite high. When older it has a tough trunk and branches that look woody and flaky.The leaves are simple, alternate, 2-6 inches and normally as wide as they are long. The edges are toothed, but may or may not be lobed. That's the hard part, the leaves can be anywhere between triangular and the five-pointed stars you see in my pictures. They have very easy to see veins and are shiny on top.
The small flowers appear in spring in small clusters and are green. The grapes blue-black, 1/2 - 3/4 of an inch, and ripen in summer. By this time of the year they're all eaten. On that note, these grapes are edible, but the raw ones contain a whole lotta acid that will bother the exposed skin of your mouth and hands. Everything I've found says don't eat them raw, make them into wine or jelly, but if you must eat them raw remove the skins.

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