Scuppernong Grape
SCUPPERNONG

Native to eastern North Carolina, the Scuppernong differed from its relative to the west, the Muscadine, in the color of its berries--light, rather than Muscadine dark.  Both were strains of the Vitis rotundifolia, distinctive for its large round berries that do not cluster.  Sweet and thick-skinned, the Scuppernongs had been a Native staple and a resource for wildlife before settlers tried rendering it into wine, jelly, and "hull pies."  The name derives from that of a river in Tyrell County, North Carolina, where the light colored round grapes grow wild.  

J. Van Buren in the 1870s supplied some pointers for identifying Scuppernongs by their vines.  "The wood or bark of the Scuppernong is of an ashy gray color, with numerous small specks of russett of a lighter color; the bark is smooth, and does not peel off in strips, as is the case with the other varieties of the grape; the wood is hard, and divided into joints from one to three inches in length; the growth is very rampant, but the shoots are small and wiry." [The Scuppernong Grape, Its History and Mode of Cultivation (Memphis, 1877), 8).  Because of the difficulty of propagating Scuppernongs from vine cuttings, the vines were layered and the rooted segments trimmed off and transplanted.  Seedlings from Scuppernongs tended to be varicolored. 

In the wild the berries grew to 3/4ths to 1 and 1/4 inch in diameter. Their form is invariably round, and their color dull yellow-green, spattered with russett dots.  The skin tends to be both thick and tough, and the berry must be allowed to ripen fully, else it will be pulpy.  When ripening the grapes exude a honeyed perfume that can make walking through a planting a heady experience.  

In the period after the Civil War breeders becan creating rotundifolia varieites.  The Flowers, a variety with dark skin and ovate berries, came into being in Robeson County North Carolina and became famed for its sweetness.  The Tender Pulp, the creation of D. P. High, recommended itself on the quality named.  The Mish was a tad smaller, but nonetheless flavorsome; it would enjoy a brief decade of favor.  J. Van Buren bred three diferent varieies durin ghte 1870s, J. Van Buren contributed three varieties to nursery stocks, a small dark variety,a singularly tasty sort, and a remarkable white grape.  Because of the great natural diversity of rotundafolia grapes, seedlings would be elevated to small scale commercial varieties in the 1880s.  Some of the more signficant were the Eden, with a large dark colored berry, used in making fortified wine in Atlanta; it was launched by Dr. Samuel Hape.  Nurseryman J. Van Lindley of Pomonoa, North Carolina, sold a proprietary strain of dark grape that had a long bearing period. It was called the "James Scuppernong."  In the late 1870s Dr. A. P. Wylie of Chester County, South Carolina, began the first systematic hybridizing of Scuppernongs.  After exhibiting them to the American Pomological Society he lost most of the vines to a fire in his workhouse.

Image:  U.S. Department of Agriculture Pomological Watercolor Collection. Rare and Special Collections, National Agricultural Library, Beltsville, MD 20705, Amanda Newton, 1905.  

David S. Shields