Vitis girdiana is a woody vine with a coating of woolly hairs, especially on new growth. The woolly leaves are heart-shaped to kidney-shaped with toothed edges and sometimes shallow lobes. The inflorescence is a panicle of unisexual flowers. The fruit is a spherical black grape usually not more than 8 millimeters wide.[2]
It grows in canyon and streambank habitat in hills and mountains of the region.[2]
Uses
Various Native American groups used the fruit and seeds. The Kumeyaay ate the fruit fresh or dried into raisins and cooked, they also rubbed the sap on falling or thin hair to help its health and make it grow.[5] The Luiseño called it Makwit and cooked the fruit for food.[6] The Cahuilla used it fresh, cooked, or dried into raisins, and made it into wine.[7]
^Hedges, Ken (1986). "Santa Ysabel Ethnobotany". Ethnic Technology Notes (20). San Diego Museum of Man: 43.
^Sparkman, Philip Stedman (7 August 1908). "The Culture of the Luiseño Indians"(PDF). University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology. 8 (4). Berkeley University Press: 231. Vitaceae. Grape-vine Family. Vitis giridiana. Makwit. Wild grape-vine. The fruit is cooked and used for food.
^Bean, Lowell John; Saubel, Katherine Siva; Lawton, Harry W; Bean, Lowell John (1972). Temalpakh (from the earth): Cahuilla Indian knowledge and usage of plants. Malki Museum Press. p. 144. ISBN978-0-939046-24-9. OCLC724036.
