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Grape is not reliably fire resistant: three sources recommend it, while three warn against it.
Idaho Firewise gives grape an 8-of-10 fire-resistance score, within the source’s recommended range. FireSmart BC also approves it as a fire-resistant plant. The University of Arizona Cooperative Extension lists grape as fire resistant when irrigated and maintained, while cautioning that resistant plants are not fireproof.
The warnings are equally direct. NC State Extension rates grape highly flammable. The USDA Forest Service and state Firewise programs place it in the least favorable category on their four-point scale, describing a vigorous, large-trunked vine that needs heavy support. The Florida Forest Service calls grape vine a fire concern and says green vines burn as readily as dead vines.
These sources cover different regions and use field trials, expert lists, compiled charts, and narrative guidance. Those differences do not resolve the conflict. Grape is a vine in the Vitaceae family, but its identity alone does not settle how it will behave around fire. A homeowner should follow local fire guidance, preserve any irrigation and maintenance conditions attached to a favorable listing, and never assume that green grape growth will resist burning.
British Columbia; Global; Greece; North Carolina; South Florida; Yavapai County, Arizona; eastern US; north-eastern and mid-Atlantic United States; southern Idaho / Intermountain
Maintenance
Typed publication scope: 5 scopes across 5 cited fire sources
Northeastern and mid-Atlantic study sites (ME, MD, MA, NY, VA footprint); partial normalized coverage · 2007-08-20
The authors collected foliage and twigs across study sites in Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, and Virginia, then conditioned and tested the samples in a cone calorimeter. FireApproved publishes 37 exact source owners only as multi-state laboratory context. The source does not establish that every taxon was sampled in every named state, whole-plant behavior, landscape suitability, or state planting guidance.
South Florida (FL footprint); partial normalized coverage · 2013-04-09
Florida Forest Service labels this publication the South Florida Edition. FireApproved publishes eight exact owners from its explicit narrative hazard callouts as South Florida context. It is not a statewide ranked list and its source-wide guidance is not projected onto unnamed plants.
Southern Idaho (ID footprint); partial normalized coverage · 2013-11-08
The official database labels itself "For Southern Idaho" and describes Idaho residents at the urban-rangeland interface. FireApproved publishes 419 existing plant owners that cite its scored rows. This bounded Southern Idaho scope is regional context, not statewide coverage or a conclusion that the score transfers unchanged to every Idaho site.
The complete three-table AG-874 plant list is explicitly for North Carolina and contains 202 low-, medium-, or high-flammability rows. FireApproved accounts for all source rows under its strict taxonomy and lineage rules; source scope does not establish local suitability at a particular North Carolina site.
Yavapai County (AZ footprint); partial normalized coverage · 2025-03-14
University of Arizona Cooperative Extension authors Bulletin 34 for Yavapai County. FireApproved publishes 198 exact source owners from its resistant and prone tables and keeps the county boundary visible. County publication scope is regional Arizona context, never statewide scope.
2. Why this plant is relevant here
State distribution
Documented in DC, DE, ID, MD, NJ, OH, PA, WV.
Native range
Introduced / established
USDA hardiness
Only uncertain or inapplicable hardiness rows are cited; no primary zone is projected.
3. Legal, ecological, and broader status
Legal-list status
Seed-list status
Reported invasive here
Broader regional context
Federal context
How to read this page
The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.
Plant hardiness evidence
These values describe the plant source. Your ZIP zone comes from the separate 2023 USDA
Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Whole-zone values stay whole-zone, and a single unresolved value
is not treated as a tolerance range. Different source boundaries stay separate: overlapping
statements are compared independently, while only ranges with no shared zone are called a conflict.
Source prints 5 · single-value meaning unresolved · whole zone precision · source stated
Source taxon: Vitis spp. · exact match.
Source location: Cold Hardiness Zone field in the recovered selector record.
Not used for comparison: The recovered selector prints one Cold Hardiness Zone value but does not define it as a minimum threshold or a one-zone range.
Conditions in the fire evidence
These describe tested or rated plant material. They are not horticultural maintenance instructions.
Placement rules below use each source's own distances or named zones, tied to its rating.
They are not interchangeable with the directory's current Zone 0 guidance.
Fire Resistance of Plants Master Database: plantable at 30' from home [Idaho minimum planting distance] (with its recommendation)
FireSmart BC Plant Program: suitable for HIZ intermediate zone (10-30 m) [FireSmart BC Home Ignition Zone] (with its recommendation)
Eastern United States Fire Performance Plant Selector: Landscape Zone 4 — beyond 30 ft; outside the selector's recommendation area [Fire Performance Plant Selector landscape zone] (with its avoid rating)
Landscaping to Reduce Wildfire Risk: South Florida Edition: grape vine [South Florida guide narrative callouts] (with its avoid rating)
Κανονισμός Πυροπροστασίας Ακινήτων εντός ή πλησίον δασικώ…: section 5.4.2, paragraph following Table 2δi [greece-2023-fire-resistant-examples] (with its recommendation)
The evidence
Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself
(a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or
republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.
Listed as Grape — Vitis sp.. The bulletin says fire-resistant plants tend to resist ignition when irrigated and maintained, while fire-prone plants may ignite readily and burn intensely.
“Another native, nuisance plant that presents fire concerns is grape vine.”
The guide flags grape vine as a native nuisance plant that presents fire concerns; its vine-fuel section says green vines burn as readily as dead vines.
“Measured; not in an author-named high or low effective-heat-of-combustion group — grape (Vitis sp.)”
· score 11.35 (AEHOC-MJ-kg) · condition: cured · original source
Conditioned foliage and twigs were tested at 25 kW/m2 in a cone calorimeter. The paper identifies the sample only to genus.
Listed without a rating (1)Corroboration (1 rows from 1 source)
FLAMITS record 2897; Combustibility measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying yes; device calorimeter; site Dibble2007-1; sampling ND. Primary study Dibble2007: Dibble, A. C., White, R. H., & Lebow, P. K. (2007). Combustion characteristics of north-eastern USA vegetation tested in the cone calorimeter: invasive versus non-invasive plants. International journal of wildland fire, 16, 426-443.
