Good morning friends, today let's take you to meet the Grape family- Vitaceae.
Vitaceae is a medium sized family of flowering plants that includes about 14 genera and 800 species found in tropical and subtropical regions.
Some of the characteristics of Vitaceae plants include:
🍁Growth habit: Members of Vitaceae family are typically woody vines that climb by means of tendrils. Some species may also be shrubs or trees.
🍁Leaves: The leaves are usually alternate and palmately lobed, meaning the lobes radiate from the center of the leaf like the fingers of a hand. The leaves are often toothed and have a rough texture.
🍁Flowers: The flowers are usually small and inconspicuous, borne in small panicles in the axils of, or opposite, the leaves with each flower having five petals and five sepals that are fused at the base.
🍁Fruit: The fruit is a berry that contains one to several seeds. In many species, the fruit is edible and may be used to make wine or juice. But not all of them have edible fruit.
In Singapore, there are several species of Vitaceae plants that can be found. These include:
🍁Borneo Grape (Ampelocissus martini:) This species is a woody vine that has palmately lobed leaves and small, inconspicuous flowers. The fruit is a small, edible grape-like berry.
🍁Cayratia mollissima: is an evergreen climber that bears hairy stems and leaves with three leaflets. It produces an inedible pinkish grape-like fruit, which could be harmful if ingested.
🍁Malayan Wild Vine (Cissus repens): This species is a vine that has simple hear-shaped leaves and small, inconspicuous flowers. The fruit is a small, purple berry. The leaves are edible and also used as poultice for inflammation and fever.
🍁Veldt Grape (Cissus quadrangularis): It is a herbaceous liana/vine with thick, succulent quadrangular (4-angled) stem, that bears tendrils at each node. The plant is widely popular in traditional medicine for healing fractured bones.
🍁Bandicoot Berry (Leea indica): This species is a shrub that has pinnately compound leaves and small, inconspicuous flowers. The fruit is a small, red berry. The leaves and fruit are edible and the plant has a variety of uses in traditional medicine.
🍁Puchok Merah/Red Bush tree (Leea rubra): Is an ornamental shrub that produces tiny red flowers in bunches. Very often found here in gardens or in the wild.
🍁Simple leaved Ribbon Vine (Pterisanthes polita) is a climber with simple leaves, with a few serrations along the margin. The tendrils lies opposite to the leaf.. The inflorescence is like a flat reddish ribbon on which green berry like fruits develop.
🍁Chestnut Vine or Lizard vine (Tetrastigma voinierianum) is a vine with large palmately compound leaves and small inconspicuous flowers and inedible fruit. Grown mainly as an ornamental in tropical regions.
🍁Grapes (Vitis vinifera): The woody climber with palmately lobed leaves producing sweet edible fruits .
Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitaceae
https://www.nparks.gov.sg/florafaunaweb/species-search?search-category=all&species-search=Vitaceae
Reference
