The Vitaceae are a family of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

s, with 14 genera and around 910 known species, including common plants such as

grapevines ''Vitis'' (grapevine) is a genus of 79 accepted species of vining plants in the flowering plant family Vitaceae. The genus is made up of species predominantly from the Northern Hemisphere. It is economically important as the source of grapes, b ...

(''Vitis'' spp.) and

Virginia creeper ''Parthenocissus quinquefolia'', known as Virginia creeper, Victoria creeper, five-leaved ivy, or five-finger, is a species of flowering vine in the grape family, Vitaceae. It is native to eastern and central North America, from southeastern Ca ...

(''Parthenocissus quinquefolia''). The family name is derived from the genus ''

Vitis ''Vitis'' (grapevine) is a genus of 79 accepted species of vining plants in the flowering plant family Vitaceae. The genus is made up of species predominantly from the Northern Hemisphere. It is economically important as the source of grapes, b ...

''. Most ''Vitis'' species have 38

chromosomes A chromosome is a long DNA molecule with part or all of the genetic material of an organism. In most chromosomes the very long thin DNA fibers are coated with packaging proteins; in eukaryotic cells the most important of these proteins are ...

(n=19), but 40 (n=20) in subgenus ''

Muscadinia ''Vitis'' (grapevine) is a genus of 79 accepted species of vining plants in the flowering plant family Vitaceae. The genus is made up of species predominantly from the Northern Hemisphere. It is economically important as the source of grapes, ...

'', while ''

Ampelocissus ''Ampelocissus'' is a genus of Vitaceae having 90 or more species found variously in tropical Africa, Asia, Central America, and Oceania. The type species, ''A. latifolia'', was originally treated under its basionym, ''Vitis latifolia'', and wa ...

'', ''

Parthenocissus ''Parthenocissus'' , is a genus of tendril vine, climbing plants in the grape family (biology), family, Vitaceae. It contains about 12 species native plant, native to the Himalayas, eastern Asia and North America. Several are grown for ornamental ...

'', and '' Ampelopsis'' also have 40 chromosomes (n=20) and ''

Cissus ''Cissus'' is a genus of approximately 350 species of lianas (Woody plant, woody vines) in the grape family (Vitaceae). They have a cosmopolitan distribution, though the majority are to be found in the tropics. Uses Medicinal ''Cissus quadrang ...

'' has 24 chromosomes (n=12). The family is economically important as the

berries A berry is a small, pulpy, and often edible fruit. Typically, berries are juicy, rounded, brightly colored, sweet, sour or tart, and do not have a stone or pit, although many pips or seeds may be present. Common examples are strawberries, raspb ...

of ''Vitis'' species, commonly known as

grape A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began perhaps 8,000 years ago, ...

s, are an important fruit crop and, when fermented, produce

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...

. Species of the genus ''

Tetrastigma ''Tetrastigma'' is a genus of plants in the grape family, Vitaceae. The plants are lianas that climb with tendrils and have palmately compound leaves. Plants are dioecious, with separate male and female plants; female flowers are characterized ...

'' serve as hosts to

parasitic plant A parasitic plant is a plant that derives some or all of its nutritional requirements from another living plant. They make up about 1% of angiosperms and are found in almost every biome. All parasitic plants develop a specialized organ called the ...

s in the family

Rafflesiaceae The Rafflesiaceae are a family of rare parasitic plants comprising 36 species in 3 genera found in the tropical forests of east and southeast Asia, including ''Rafflesia arnoldii'', which has the largest flowers of all plants. The plants are en ...

Taxonomy

The name sometimes appears as Vitidaceae, but Vitaceae is a

conserved name A conserved name or ''nomen conservandum'' (plural ''nomina conservanda'', abbreviated as ''nom. cons.'') is a scientific name that has specific nomenclatural protection. That is, the name is retained, even though it violates one or more rules whic ...

and therefore has priority over both Vitidaceae and another name sometimes found in the older literature, Ampelidaceae. In the

APG III system The APG III system of flowering plant classification is the third version of a modern, mostly molecular-based, system of plant taxonomy being developed by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG). Published in 2009, it was superseded in 2016 by a fur ...

(2009) onwards, the family is placed in its own order, Vitales.

Molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

studies place the Vitales as the most basal clade in the

rosids The rosids are members of a large clade (monophyletic group) of flowering plants, containing about 70,000 species, more than a quarter of all angiosperms. The clade is divided into 16 to 20 orders, depending upon circumscription and classificatio ...

. In the

Cronquist system The Cronquist system is a taxonomic classification system of flowering plants. It was developed by Arthur Cronquist in a series of monographs and texts, including ''The Evolution and Classification of Flowering Plants'' (1968; 2nd edition, 1988) a ...

, the family was placed near the family

Rhamnaceae The Rhamnaceae are a large family of flowering plants, mostly trees, shrubs, and some vines, commonly called the buckthorn family. Rhamnaceae is included in the order Rosales. The family contains about 55 genera and 950 species. The Rhamnaceae h ...

in order

Rhamnales The Rhamnales Lindl. are an order of dicotyledon plants in the subclass Rosidae. In the Cronquist system, the following families were placed here: * Family Elaeagnaceae – (Oleaster family) * Family Leeaceae * Family Rhamnaceae (buckthorn family ...

. ''

Plants of the World Online Plants of the World Online (POWO) is an online database published by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. It was launched in March 2017 with the ultimate aim being "to enable users to access information on all the world's known seed-bearing plants by ...

'' currently includes the following genera, placed in two subfamilies:

Leeoideae

* ''

Leea ''Leea'' (Tagalog: ''Talyantan'') is a genus of plants that are distributed throughout Northern and eastern Australia, New Guinea, South and Southeast Asia and parts of Africa. The APG IV system places ''Leea'' in the subfamily Leeoideae (Vitacea ...

'' D.Royen: previously placed in its own

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...

family, Leeaceae, was included in Vitaceae by

APG IV The APG IV system of flowering plant classification is the fourth version of a modern, mostly molecular-based, system of plant taxonomy for flowering plants (angiosperms) being developed by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG). It was publishe ...

(2016) and the Angiosperm Phylogeny Website.

Vitoideae

Five tribes are now recognised in this subfamily: ;Ampelopsideae Ampelopsis glandulosa var

# '' Ampelopsis'' A.Rich. ex Michx. (pepper-vines) # ''

Clematicissus ''Clematicissus'' is a plant genus in the family Vitaceae The Vitaceae are a family of flowering plants, with 14 genera and around 910 known species, including common plants such as grapevines (''Vitis'' spp.) and Virginia creeper (''Parthenoc ...

'' Planch. # ''

Nekemias ''Nekemias'' is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Vitaceae. Its native range is Assam to Temperate Eastern Asia and Western and Central Malesia, Central and Eastern USA. Species '' Plants of the World Online'' currently inclu ...

'' Raf. # ''

Rhoicissus ''Rhoicissus'' is an Afrotropical plant genus in the grape family Vitaceae and subfamily Vitoideae. There are between nine and twenty-two accepted species. The leaves of species '' R. tomentosa'' and ''R. tridentata'' are eaten by caterpillars ...

'' Planch. ;

Cayratieae The Cayratieae is one of five tribes of vine plants that are now recognised in this subfamily Vitoideae.Wen J, Lu LM, Nie ZI, Liu XQ, Zhang N, Ickert‐Bond S, Gerrath J, Manchester SR, Boggan J, Chen ZD (2018) A new phylogenetic tribal classifi ...

# '' Acareosperma'' Gagnep. # '' Causonis'' Raf. # ''

Cayratia The genus ''Cayratia'' consists of species of vine plants, typical of the tribe Cayratieae. Some of them are useful, and they are found in tropical and subtropical areas of Asia, Africa, Australia, and islands of the Pacific Ocean. Within the V ...

'' Juss. # ''

Cyphostemma ''Cyphostemma'' is a flowering plant genus in the family Vitaceae, with around 250 species distributed throughout the tropics and subtropics. These species are caudiciform and used to belong to the genus ''Cissus''. The genus name comes from Gre ...

'' (Planch.) Alston # '' Pseudocayratia'' J.Wen, L.M.Lu & Z.D.Chen # ''

'' (Miq.) Planch. ;Cisseae Starr 071024-9714 Cissus nodosa

# ''

'' L. (treebinds) - widespread in tropics & subtropics ;Parthenocisseae Parthenocissus quinquefolia fructis

# ''

'' Planch. # '' Yua'' C.L.Li ;Viteae # ''

'' Planch. # ''

'' L. (includes grape vine) ;tribe ''incertae sedis'' # '' Pterisanthes'' Blume (Indochina, Malesia)

Earliest fossil history

Well preserved-fruits of ''Indovitis chitaleyae'' containing seeds with similar morphology to the Vitaceae have been recovered from

Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', the ...

Deccan The large Deccan Plateau in South India, southern India is located between the Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats, and is loosely defined as the peninsular region between these ranges that is south of the Narmada river. To the north, it is bou ...

Intertrappean beds The Intertrappean Beds are a Late Cretaceous geologic formation in India. The beds are found as interbeds between Deccan Traps layers. Indeterminate theropod and pterosaur remains have been recovered from the formation, as well as dinosaur eggs ...

of several sites in central

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. These fruits and their dispersed seeds found in the same sediments, about 66 million years old, represent the oldest known fossils of the grape family. The fossil fruits containing 4 to 6 seeds are very similar to extant ''Vitis''..

References

*
Vitaceae
at th
Angiosperm Phylogeny Web

i
L. Watson and M.J. Dallwitz (1992 onwards). The families of flowering plants: descriptions, illustrations, identification, information retrieval.
http://delta-intkey.com {{Authority control Rosid families