Narrative

Riverside or Riverbank Grape (Vitis riparia) is found from eastern Canada, south to Georgia, and west to New Mexico and Montana. The leaves are green on both sides. This grape can become a troublesome weed.

This lifeform is locally common.

This lifeform is found east of the Continental Divide in North America.

Vitis genus (grapes) is native to the Northern Hemisphere in both the Old and New World. There are about 65 species of shrubs and mostly vines climbing by tendrils in this genus. The fruits of many species are edible and the fruits of some species can be made into wine. There were 17 species, six hybrids, and nine subspecies growing in greater North America as of 1994.

Grape Family (Vitaceae) is a family of about 600-800 species arranged in about a dozen genera widespread mainly in the tropics. However, it also ranges north and south into cooler climates. There are 37 species arranged in five genera growing in greater North America.

Rhamnales Order is a small order of woody plants containing only two families.

Dicots (Dicotyledoneae Class) are the predominant group of vascular plants on earth. With the exception of the grasses (Monocots) and the Conifers (Gymnosperms), most of the larger plants that one encounters are Dicots. Dicots are characterized by having a seed with two outer shell coverings.

Some of the more primitive Dicots are the typical hardwood trees (oaks, birches, hickories, etc). The more advanced Dicots include many of the Composite (Aster) Family flowers like the Dandelion, Aster, Thistles, and Sunflowers. Although many Monocots reach a very high degree of specialization, most botanists feel that the Dicots represent the most advanced group of plants.

Seed plants (Phylum Embryophyta) are generally grouped into one large phylum containing three major classes: the Gymnosperms, the Monocots, and the Dicots. (Some scientists separate the Gymnosperms into a separate phylum and refer to the remaining plants as flowering plants or Angiospermae.)

For North American counts of the number of species in each genus and family, the primary reference has been John T. Kartesz, author of A Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland (1994). The geographical scope of his lists include, as part of greater North America, Hawaii, Alaska, Greenland, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.

Kartesz lists 21,757 species of vascular plants comprising the ferns, gymnosperms and flowering plants as being found in greater North America (including Alaska, Hawaii, Greenland, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

There are estimates within the scientific world that about half of the listed North American seed plants were originally native with the balance being comprised of Eurasian and tropical plants that have become established.