Copyright Notice: This article is from the Encyclopedia of North Carolina edited by William S. Powell. Copyright © 2006 by the University of North Carolina Press. Used by permission of the publisher. For personal use and not for further distribution. Please submit permission requests for other use directly to the publisher.

Photograph of Michigan Wild Grapes (Vitis labrusca)", by Cody Hough, Wikimedia Commons. Vitis labrusca is the scientific name for the Fox Grape.
Photograph of Michigan Wild Grapes (Vitis labrusca)", by Cody Hough, Wikimedia Commons. Vitis labrusca is the scientific name for the Fox Grape.
Fox grape (Vitis labrusca) thrives in North Carolina's piedmont and mountain regions. One variety of fox grape, the Catawba, was apparently first found along the banks of Cane Creek south of Swannanoa in Buncombe County. Catawba wine also became a popular antebellum spirit well outside the South, fortifying Harriet Beecher Stowe in her literary campaign against slavery.

Image Credit:

Hough, Cody. "Michigan Wild Grapes (vitis labrusca)." Photograph. October 7, 2007. Wikimedia Commons. CC By-SA 3.0. https://species.wikimedia.org/wiki/Vitis_labrusca#/media/File:Wild_Grapes.JPG

Citation

Simpson, Bland. "Fox Grape." NCpedia. Encyclopedia of North Carolina, University of North Carolina Press. Accessed on February 12th, 2025. https://www.ncpedia.org/fox-grape.