Virginia creeper can often be seen on older buildings in particular, but also on walls, pergolas, sheds and fences. Here the diligently and very lushly growing climbing plant hides unsightly, bare facades and walls and embellishes many an architectural sin. Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus) looks very similar to grapevines (Vitis vinifera) and often develops small, black berries in autumn. However, as similar as the plant to the common grapevine may be, its fruits are not edible for humans.
Virginia creeper fruits are slightly poisonous
Virginia creeper berries are slightly poisonous
In June / July, the Virginia creeper flowers with rather inconspicuous, greenish-white flower umbels, from which pea-sized, globular and bluish-black berries develop until October - i.e. at the same time as the autumn colours. Visually, this ensemble is very nice to look at, and the fruits are very popular with many birds. Nevertheless, the berries are inedible for humans, even slightly poisonous: not only the whole plant including the leaves and shoots, but especially the fruits contain a lot of oxalic acid. This can cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhea in children, sensitive people and animals.
Risk of confusion with berries of the grapevine
Despite the similarity in name, wild wine should not be confused with grapevines and their edible fruits - grapes. Although both species belong to the grapevine family (Vitaceae), they belong to different genera and are therefore only very closely related to each other. While wild wine belongs to the genus of virgin vines (Parthenocissus), the noble grape vine is classified to the genus of grape vines (Vitis).
Virginia creeper is purely an ornamental plant
Furthermore, no medicinal uses of wild wine are known, neither from the folk medicine of earlier centuries nor from today. From this it can be concluded that Virginia creeper is purely an ornamental plant and is not suitable for any kind of utilization - unless you count the use of its fruits as extremely popular bird food.
tips
If you are looking for a beautiful climbing plant whose fruits you can eat, the noble grapevine (Vitis vinifera subsp. vinifera) - a subspecies of grapevine - is the right choice for you.