Narrative
Type = Species. Flower = male. Per Hedrick (see citation): "Vine vigorous to very vigorous, climbing. Shoots cylindrical or slightly angled, susally smooth, slender; diaphragms thin; tendrils intermittent, slender, usually bifid. Leaves with large stipules; leaf-blade medium to large, thin, entire, three, or lower ones often five-lobed; sinuses shallow, angular; petiolar sinsus broad, usually rather shallow; margin with incised, sharply serrate teeth of variable size; of a light green color, glabrous above, usually glabrous but sometimes slightly pubescent on ribs and veins below. Cluster medium to small, generally compact, shouldered; peduncle short. Berries small to medium, black with a heavy blue bloom. Seeds usually two to four, small, usually slightly notched, short, plump, with very short beak; chalaza narrowly oval, depressed, indistinct; raphe usually a groove, sometimes slightly distinct. Very variable in flavor and time of ripening . . . Riparia is the most widely distributed of any American species of grape. It has been found in parts of Canada north of Quebec and from thence southward to the Gulf of Mexico. It is found from the Atlantic coast westward, most botanists say to the Rocky Mountains, but Munson gives the western limit as Salt Lake . . . Usually it is found on riverbanks, on islands or in upland ravines."