Narrative
Type = species. Flower = female. Per Galet (see citation): "Growing tip: globular, shepherd's crook, upper surface is glabrous and the lower pubescent. Young leaves: pale green. Leaf: cuneiform, 135 to 246-3 to 4-24 to 46, large, pubescent on both surfaces especially the lower surface which has tufts of bristly hair at the bifurcation of the primary veins; thin, dark green, slightly three-lobed (21); teeth pointed, narrow, the three terminal teeth of L1 and L2 are very long; petiolar sinus lyre-shaped, more or less open. Shoot: glabrous or pubescent, smooth of finely ribbed, thin. Flower clusters: male or female; the female cultivars have two or three clusters per shoot and the secc condary buds are equally fruitful. This character is evident in the HDP descendants which will crop even after a spring frost. Cluster: always very small 5 to 12 cm; very small berries 4 to 8 mm, round or oblate, black, very little juice, herbaceous flavor, very high color on the skin, and very early maturation. Wine is dark purple and acid, has body and blackberrylike aroma. Seeds: small, 4mm, semicircular, doral side very swollen, ash-gray to brownish; chalaza small, position .55, round; raphe rather rudimentary; beak very short, almost non-existant. Growth habit: trailing or climbing. MAIN CHARACTERS FOR INDENTIFICATION: 1. Pale green, globular, shepherd's crook growing tip, whose upper surface is smooth and lower surface pubescent. 2. Shield-shaped, thin leaf with pubescent veins on lower surface and tufts of bristly hair at the junction of the main veins. 3. Narrow, pointed teeth, those corresponding to the midveins and superior lateral veins being exceptionally long and pointed. Characters 2 and 3 are genetically transmitted and permit one to detect the presence of riparia in the complex hybrids. APTITUDES: V. riparia...is the earliest ripening of all the American species. Budbreak is mid-march, bloom the first half of May and maturation the end of July. Leaf fall is early in..."