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.
[9]
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.[10]
^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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