Wild Grapes in the backyard? (Mustang: appointed, fence, garden)

[Hedgehog_Mom]

There's a vine growing on my back fence that seems to be making lots of tiny grapes. I've never seen wild grapes here before. I took a picture...are these grapes? There was one that was black, I picked it and it smelled very pungent and had one gray seed with purple spots inside.

I'm not going to eat them, it would just be neat to know if they were grapes.

[IntentionallyBlank]

Does it get purple flowers in spring? I think it's a type of morning glory vine. We have one that looks very similar to that one. Bees love it, which stinks because it's on my front gate.

[Hedgehog_Mom]

I haven't seen purple flowers on this one. I have seen vines around here with the purple flowers, I think that's bindweed. I was hoping this one was going to grow some flowers and that the green things were buds, but they're some sort of little fruit. I should have taken a picture of the black fruit before I squished it.

[Azure110]

I have this vine also which comes from my neighbors yard and I hate it. It is really invasive. No clue what it is but I can ask my neighbor what it is.

[TrapperL]

Does it by chance put on berries that looks like this?

[NotoriousHOP]

Can't tell for sure but that looks like a weedy vine that grows in my backyard. Crush the leaf, if it stinks, it's likely a weed, and a rapidly growing one if that.

[TrapperL]

The pic I posted are the "grapes" from poison ivy which is what it looks like to me. It could be muscadine grapes but they generally don't grow here. They are common in East Texas but they require a lot of water and humidity which we don't have. Here's muscadine grapes:


We do have a grape that grows around here called Mustang Grapes. The leaves are different from the posted pic though. Mustang Grapes will burn your lips when they turn dark. You have to wait until the grapes start to look like they are drying up with the skin shriveled a little. Then the acid is gone and they don't burn. Makes fabulous wine. The juice mixed with apple juice makes the best jelly ya ever had. They generally grow south of here in softer soil like the sand country. Here's a pic:

[Hedgehog_Mom]

It's not poison ivy, that I'm sure of.

The little black grape that I squished and smelled last night was very juicy and had a sharp smell to it. The leaf is thick and a little rubbery-feeling.

My neighbor waters his backyard a lot (so much during the night that it's still seeping through the retaining wall by noon) and it goes into my yard too...I haven't tried to plant a garden because I figured I would use more water than it was worth to keep it watered, but maybe I'll plant one in the part of the yard that my neighbor waters for me

[Lee W.]

I'm thinking it might be Cow-Itch Vine or Ivy Treebine, Cissus incisa. It has tiny clusters of yellow-green flowers and the berries turn dark blue to black when ripe. Wildlife eat the berries sometimes.
Texas Native Plants Database

[AmbushAnnie]

The rubbery leaves make me think it may be the poisonous moonseed... which I found on-line, just tonite, while trying to find out what a grapevine near me might be. The one near me sounds like what you described.
Most grapes do NOT have rubbery leaves. (I've grown grapes before, and eaten wild muscadines.)
The tiny grape clusters on "mine" are now bright red, and they are not perfectly round, but slightly flatted-out spheres... almost perfectly round until you look very closely. After it matures, I will cut one open and see if the seeds are moon-shaped (more like a pie with a piece cut out).
In any case, though... rubbery leaves... very worrisome.
I am so disappointed to find out "mine" are poisonous... oh, well...