frost grape, Vitis vulpina

There have been some fun identification games with fox grape. It's a rarity here in Michigan, and looks very much like the common river grape. River grape has a fringe of tiny hairs along the leaf edges, frost grape does not. The first time I saw this the leaf I checked was without hairs. No, wait, the leaf next to it has them. This is a mixed up vine! Turned out that was exactly it, with both species twined together up the same small tree. Then there are the frost grapes at Ives Preserve, where river grape is very common. Frost grape is draped on the trees along the road at the south edge of the Preserve. I walked under those for going on thirty years before recognizing them. When I did it was because of these bunches of flowers, more narrow than river grape. Frost grape grows in AL, AR, DE, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MA, MD, MI(T), MO, MS, NC, NE, NJ, NY(E), OH, OK, PA, SC, TN, TX, VA, WV, and ON. Lenawee Co MI, 6/11/12. Grape family, Vitaceae.