Keyed Out #060 — Vitis vinifera

Question 1

Each {tendril}, and each young flower cluster, springs from the stem directly opposite a leaf instead of from the notch between leaf stalk and stem, because both organs are shoots that gave up growing onward in order to grip.

Accepted Answer

grape family

Question 2

Its flowers are tiny and five-parted and never open in the ordinary way; the {petals} stay joined at their tips and lift free as one small green cap, exposing five {stamens} that stand one in front of each fallen petal above a fleshy {nectary} ring.

Accepted Answer

Vitaceae

Question 3

Slice an old stem lengthwise and the {pith} is tan to brown and blocked at every {node} by a hard woody cross-plate, while the bark of mature wood peels away in long loose fibrous strips, rather than white {pith} running unbroken through the {node} beneath tight, clinging bark.

Accepted Answer

Vitis

Question 4

It climbs by slender forked {tendrils} that sweep the air and then wind and coil tightly around a wire, cane or twig, their tips staying naked and never swelling into flat sticky discs that would let the plant fasten itself to bare masonry.

Accepted Answer

Vitis

Question 5

Turn a mature leaf over and the underside is green and plainly visible, at most thinly cobwebby along the veins, not smothered under a dense rusty-brown or grey felt thick enough to hide the surface entirely.

Accepted Answer

Vitis vinifera

Question 6

Its ripe {berries} are large for the genus, mostly 0.6 to 1 inch (15 to 25 mm) across and sweet enough to eat straight from the bunch, rather than hard sour beads barely a third that width that pucker the mouth.

Accepted Answer

Vitis vinifera