Plants & People

During 2018-2022, I worked with NatureServe, the U.S. Botanic Garden, and the USDA ARS National Germplasm Resources Laboratory to put together a workshop on the Conservation of the Native Grapes of North America held at Oak Spring Garden Foundation in Upperville, Va.

To learn more about the workshop and why the native grapes of North America are important for the future of wine, watch this youtube video of the talk I did for the Loudoun County Public Library.

Links and Resources for March 23, 2023 talk

Ampelographer Lucie Morton examines a heritage hybrid grapevine at Oak Spring Garden Foundation in Upperville, Virginia

Wild vines along the Potomac

Workshop on the Conservation of the Native Grapes of North America–Oak Spring Garden Foundation. The photos that follow show some of the collecting adventures and more that followed from relationships developed at the workshop.

Lucie Morton and Erin Galarneau, curator of USDA’s grapevine collection in Geneva, NY, comparing wild vines along the roadside near Middleburg, Va.

Collecting wild Vitis aestivalis near Stone Tower winery to study resistance to fungal pathogens

Wild Vitis aestivalis growing near Stone Tower winery, near Middleburg, Va.

Lucie Morton displaying some “Vitis Proibida” from the Azores. This is the heritage hybrid Isabella, a cross between the Eurasian winegrape Vitis vinifera and the native American Vitis labrusca. Called “proibida” because it is agains the law to sell in Europe. Jun Wen, right, is the expert on taxonomy of the Vitaceae (the family that includes the grapevines) at the Smithsonian.

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