The scuppernong is a large variety of

muscadine ''Vitis rotundifolia'', or muscadine, is a grapevine species native to the southern United States, southeastern and south-central United States. The growth range extends from Florida to New Jersey coast, and west to eastern Texas and Oklahoma. I ...

(''Vitis rotundifolia''), a species of

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 approximately 8,0 ...

native to the southern United States. It is usually a greenish or bronze color and is similar in appearance and texture to a white grape, but rounder and larger. First known as the "big white grape", the grape is commonly known as the "scuplin" in some areas of the

Deep South The Deep South or the Lower South is a cultural and geographic subregion of the Southern United States. The term is used to describe the states which were most economically dependent on Plantation complexes in the Southern United States, plant ...

and also as the "scufalum", "scupanon", "scupadine", "scuppernine", "scupnun", or "scufadine" in other parts of the South. The scuppernong is the state fruit of North Carolina.

History

The name comes from the Scuppernong River in

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

mainly along the coastal plain. It was first mentioned as a "white grape" in a written logbook by the Florentine explorer Giovanni de Verrazzano while exploring the

Cape Fear River The Cape Fear River is a blackwater river in east-central North Carolina. It flows into the Atlantic Ocean near Cape Fear, from which it takes its name. The river is formed at the confluence of the Haw River and the Deep River in the town of ...

Valley in 1524. He wrote of "... ny vines growing naturally there...".

Sir Walter Raleigh Sir Walter Raleigh (; – 29 October 1618) was an English statesman, soldier, writer and explorer. One of the most notable figures of the Elizabethan era, he played a leading part in English colonisation of North America, suppressed rebellio ...

's explorers, the captains Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe, wrote in 1584 that North Carolina's coast was "...so full of grapes as the very beating and surge of the sea overflowed them...in all the world, the like abundance is not to be found." He may have been referring to Sargasso seaweed from coral reefs, which can be seen washed up on shore after a major storm off the North Carolina coast. The seaweed has berrylike gas-filled bladders looking much like grapes to keep the fronds afloat. However, in 1585, Governor

Ralph Lane Sir Ralph Lane (c. 1532 – October 1603)''The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509–1558,'' ed. S.T. Bindoff, 1982''Lane, Ralph (c. 1532–1603), of London''/ref>

, when describing North Carolina to Raleigh, stated: "We have discovered the main to be the goodliest soil under the cope of heaven, so abounding with sweet trees that bring rich and pleasant, grapes of such greatness, yet wild, as France, Spain, nor Italy hath no greater...". The Scuppernong grape was first cultivated during the 17th century, particularly in Tyrell County, North Carolina. Isaac Alexander found it while hunting along the banks of a stream feeding into Scuppernong Lake in 1755; it is mentioned in the North Carolina official state toast. The name itself traces back to the Algonquian word ''ascopo'', meaning "sweet bay tree".

Cultivation

The

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants (angiosperms) that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which angiosperms disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particular have long propaga ...

grows where temperatures seldom fall below . Injury or freeze can occur where winter temperatures drop below . Some

cultivar A cultivar is a kind of Horticulture, cultivated plant that people have selected for desired phenotypic trait, traits and which retains those traits when Plant propagation, propagated. Methods used to propagate cultivars include division, root a ...

s, such as "Magnolia", "Carlos", and "Sterling" will survive north to

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

and west to the

Blue Ridge Mountains The Blue Ridge Mountains are a Physiographic regions of the United States, physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Highlands range. The mountain range is located in the Eastern United States and extends 550 miles southwest from southern ...

foothills. Nonetheless, Muscadines have a high tolerance to diseases and pests; more than 100 years of breeding has resulted in several bronze cultivars, such as "Doreen" and "Triumph", in addition to the aforementioned "Carlos" and "Magnolia’". All are distinguishable from the Scuppernong variety by being perfect-flowered (male and female flower parts together). The Scuppernong possesses only female flowering parts.

The "Mother Vine"

Duplin vineyard of Scuppernog grapevines

Possibly the oldest cultivated grapevine in the world is the 400-year-old scuppernong "Mother Vine" growing on

Roanoke Island Roanoke Island () is an island in Dare County, bordered by the Outer Banks of North Carolina. It was named after the historical Roanoke, a Carolina Algonquian people who inhabited the area in the 16th century at the time of English colonizat ...

. Growing at the town of Manteo, the Mother Vine was in 2010, long by wide, but at its prime in the 1950s had covered .

Use of scuppernong in the arts

In music

''Scuppernong'' is a piece for piano in three movements by John Wesley Work III. ''Broomstraw Philosophers and Scuppernong Wine'' is a song written by country artist, Larry Jon Wilson.

In literature

Scuppernongs are mentioned in chapters 4, 5, and 22 of ''

To Kill a Mockingbird ''To Kill a Mockingbird'' is a 1960 Southern Gothic novel by American author Harper Lee. It became instantly successful after its release; in the United States, it is widely read in high schools and middle schools. ''To Kill a Mockingbird'' ...

''. Scuppernongs are also mentioned in Charles W. Chesnutt's 1899 collection of short stories '' The Conjure Woman''. They are also mentioned by the name "scupadine" in chapter 6 of '' Salvage the Bones''. "In the Scuppernongs" is the title of a chapter in '' Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone'', the ninth book in the '' Outlander'' series by Diana Gabaldon. In the movie '' The Bad Seed'', Rhoda Penmark talks about the "Scuppernong arbor" in the family's yard. In

William Faulkner William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer. He is best known for William Faulkner bibliography, his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, a stand-in fo ...

's novel Absalom, Absalom!,

Thomas Sutpen Thomas Sutpen is a focal character of William Faulkner's 1936 novel '' Absalom, Absalom!'' Sutpen arrives in Faulkner's imaginary Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, in the 1830s and establishes a 64,000-acre (100-square-mile) plantation, Sutpen's ...

, and Wash Jones drink whiskey and laugh together in the Scuppernong arbor on Sutpen's estate. Scuppernongs are mentioned in Chapter 25 of MacKinlay Kantor's Civil War novel '' Andersonville''.

References

External links

VisitNC.com North Carolina's Toast To The MotherVine

CharlestonWine.com History of the Muscadine - The South's Own Grape
{{American wine Grape varieties Crops originating from the United States Cuisine of the Southern United States American wine Symbols of North Carolina