Ampelopsis, commonly known as peppervine[1] or porcelainberry,[1] is a
genus of climbing
shrubs, in the grape family
Vitaceae. The name is derived from the
Ancient Greek: ἅμπελος (ampelos), which means "vine".[2] The genus was named in 1803. It is disjunctly distributed in
eastern Asia and eastern North America extending to
Mexico. Ampelopsis is primarily found in mountainous regions in temperate zones with some species in montane forests at mid-altitudes in
subtropical to
tropical regions.[3]Ampelopsis glandulosa is a popular garden plant and an
invasive weed.
Fossil seeds from the early
Miocene of Ampelopsis ludwigii and Ampelopsis rotundata, have been found in the
Czech part of the
Zittau Basin.
[8]
The
fossil species Ampelopsis malvaeformis was rather common in northern
Italy in the early and middle
Pliocene but seems to disappear at the middle and late Pliocene boundary.[9]
^The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants, Edited by K. Kubitzki in collaboration with C. Bayer and P.F. Stevens, Volume IX, Flowering Plants Eudicots, Springer Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007,
ISBN3-540-32214-0
^Acta Palaeobotanica - 43(1): 9-49, January 2003 - Early Miocene carpological material from the Czech part of the Zittau Basin - Vasilis Teodoridis
^The role of central Italy as a centre of refuge for
thermophilous plants in the late Cenozoic, Edoardo Martinetto, Acta Palaeobotan. 41(2): 299-319, 2001
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