Vine · Vitaceae
Summer grape
Vitis aestivalis · includes its varieties and subspecies
Summer grape is recorded as native to 33 states and territories in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in 1,166 counties of those states by USDA PLANTS.
Key facts · USDA PLANTS
Summer grape at a glance
- Native in
- 1,166 counties, across 33 states and territories
- Estimated cold hardiness
- Zone 5a PLANTS minimum temperature −23°F
- Mature height
- 30 ft PLANTS mature height
- Light and water
- Tolerates shade Medium water use
Estimated cold hardiness: zone 5a. PLANTS gives a minimum temperature of −23°F; zone 5a winters bottom out at −20°F, the coldest half-zone that stays within that limit.
Summer grape is recorded as native to 33 states and territories in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in 1,166 counties of those states by USDA PLANTS.
Counties where it is native
The 15 counties with the most ZIP codes among the 1,166 where it is listed.
Native counties by state
- Alabama 64 counties
- Arkansas 46 counties
- Connecticut statewide record
- Delaware 1 county
- District of Columbia 1 county
- Florida 49 counties
- Georgia 47 counties
- Illinois 69 counties
- Indiana 49 counties
- Kansas 14 counties
- Kentucky 81 counties
- Louisiana 40 counties
- Massachusetts 14 counties
- Michigan 28 counties
- Minnesota 3 counties
- Mississippi 35 counties
- Missouri 86 counties
- Nebraska 5 counties
- New Hampshire 7 counties
- New Jersey 20 counties
- New York 36 counties
- North Carolina 59 counties
- Ohio 61 counties
- Oklahoma 25 counties
- Pennsylvania 65 counties
- Rhode Island 3 counties
- South Carolina 20 counties
- Tennessee 56 counties
- Texas 29 counties
- Vermont 7 counties
- Virginia 92 counties
- West Virginia 38 counties
- Wisconsin 16 counties
Growing traits
Values from the PLANTS characteristics record. “Not recorded” means PLANTS has no value; nothing here is estimated except the zone.
Growth
- Growth habit
- Vine
- Duration
- Perennial
- Mature height
- 30 ft
- Growth rate
- Rapid
- Growth form
- Multiple Stem
- Shape
- Climbing
- Lifespan
- Long
- Active growth period
- Spring and Summer
Light and water
- Shade tolerance
- Tolerant (tolerates shade)
- Moisture use
- Medium water use
- Drought tolerance
- High
- Tolerance of waterlogged soil
- Low
- Precipitation range
- 30 to 55 in per year
Soil
- Soil textures
- Coarse and medium
- pH range
- 5.3 to 7
- Lime (CaCO₃) tolerance
- Medium
- Salinity tolerance
- None
- Fertility requirement
- Medium
- Minimum root depth
- 16 in
Climate
- Minimum temperature
- −23°F
- Estimated cold hardiness
- Zone 5a and warmer
- Minimum frost-free days
- 120
- Fire tolerance
- Low
Flowers, leaves and fruit
- Flower color
- Green
- Showy flowers
- No
- Bloom period
- Late Spring
- Foliage color
- Green
- Showy in fall
- Yes
- Keeps leaves
- No
- Fruit color
- Black
Other
- Toxicity
- None
- Nitrogen fixation
- None
- Nursery availability
- No Known Source
- Family
- Vitaceae
- PLANTS symbol
- VIAE
Source & data date
- Source
- USDA NRCS PLANTS Database: county distribution records, native status and plant characteristics. CC0 (public domain dedication, per the data.gov catalog record).
- Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP): native or introduced status by state. CC BY 3.0.
- USGS US-RIIS (ver. 2.0): species listed as introduced are excluded. CC0.
- Citation
- USDA, NRCS. 2026. The PLANTS Database (https://plants.usda.gov, 11/04/2026). National Plant Data Team, Greensboro, NC USA.
- Govaerts R. (ed.) (2026). WCVP: World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Data file dated 2026-06-04, http://sftp.kew.org/pub/data-repositories/WCVP/ (retrieved 2026-11-04). Paper: Govaerts R. et al. (2021) The World Checklist of Vascular Plants, a continuously updated resource for exploring global plant diversity. Scientific Data 8, 215.
- Data date
- Retrieved from PLANTS on November 4, 2026; WCVP data file dated June 4, 2026.
- Scope
- Vitis aestivalis (PLANTS symbol VIAE), including 2 varieties and subspecies folded into the species.
- Method
- A species is listed when it is recorded as native to the state in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in the county by USDA PLANTS. Species PLANTS labels both native and introduced are listed separately. Full method · All sources