pepper vine n
A woody vine: usu Nekemias arborea (formerly Ampelopsis a.) but occas false grape n 2. For other names of N. arborea see bird cherry n 2, cowitch n 2c, sarsaparilla n B6, snow vine n, turkey vine n, wild sarsaparilla n 5
1807 Miller Gardener & Botanist’s Dict. 2 sig 19K2v, Vitis arborea. Pepper Vine. 1870 Scott Art of Beautifying 594, The Pepper-vine. Ampelopsis bipinnati [sic].—A variety with compound pinnate leaves, of lesser growth than the preceding [=Virginia Creeper], and not so close a creeper. 1890 Boston Eve. Transcript (MA) 14 May 7/1, Ampelopsis bipinnata, commonly known as pepper vine, . . a native species, common in West Virginia, Ohio and southward, is a free-going, hardy climbing plant, of very graceful habit and beautiful foliage. 1929 Jrl. Elisha Mitchell Scientific Soc. 45.82 NC, Ampelopsis cordata. . . (Pepper Vine). . . It occurs, rarely, as a climber in thickets along the lower courses of the big streams. Specimen: wet thickets along the Pacolet. 1942 Hylander Plant Life 370, Pepper Vine (Ampelopsis) is a vine . . growing along river banks from Virginia southward and westward to the central states. 1948 Cincinnati Post (OH) 3 Nov 21/2, [Caption:] The pepper vine (Ampelopsis Arborea) climbing the lattice grows in several Cincinnati gardens though supposedly not hardy in the north. 1964 Batson Wild Flowers SC 127, A. cordata Michaux, Pepper-vine. 2021 Tallahassee Democrat (FL) 25 Oct sec C 2/2, Native pepper-vine drapped [sic] riverbank trees like kudzu, but its black grape-like berries are good wildlife food.