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Akebia guinata

Interesting Facts

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Description

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Family Lardizabalaceae

Woody climbers , rarely erect shrubs (Decaisnea) . Monoecious, rarely dioecious. Stems climbing or twining (erect in Decaisnea) ; wood with broad medullary rays . Winter buds large; outer scales 2 to numerous ; scales subtending leaves persistent , scaly . Stipules usually absent (present and very small in Sinofranchetia) . Leaves alternate, palmate or 3-foliolate, rarely pinnate (Decaisnea) . Petiole and petiolules swollen at both ends, articulate . Flowers functionally unisexual by reduction or abortion , actinomorphic . Sepals 6 (usually 3 in Akebia), petaloid , in 2 whorls, imbricate or outer 3 valvate . Petals 6, nectariferous , much smaller than sepals or absent. Male flowers: stamens free or connate into a tube ; anthers 2-celled, extrorsely dehiscent by longitudinal slit; connective apical appendage hornlike or apiculate , sometimes unappendaged. Pistillodes 3--6(--9), small, filiform . Female flowers: staminodes 6. Carpels 3(--9) or numerous (Sargentodoxa), superior, free; ovules numerous, orthotropous or anatropous , in 2 to several longitudinal rows on laminar placenta, rarely 1, pendulous, hemitropous to subanatropous (Sargentodoxa) . Stigma conspicuous , sessile or subsessile . Fruit fleshy follicles or baccate , indehiscent or dehiscent along abaxial suture. Seeds numerous, rarely solitary; seed coat crustaceous ; endosperm copious ; embryo small, straight.

Nine genera and ca. 50 species: mainly in E Asia, two monotypic genera in S America; seven genera (two endemic) and 37 species (25 endemic) in China.[1]

Genus Akebia

Vines , twining . Leaves palmately compound ; leaflets 3-5, articulate at base of blade and at base of petiolule . Inflorescences racemose, pistillate flowers proximal to staminate flowers in each raceme . Flowers dimorphic : pistillate flowers larger and longer pediceled than staminate flowers; sepals mostly brownish to purplish. Staminate flowers: pistillodes present. Pistillate flowers: pistils (3-) -8(-15) ; placentation laminar ; staminodes present. Fruits follicles, fleshy , dehiscent along adaxial suture. Seeds 100-several hundred . x = 16.

Species 4: North America, Asia.

Pistils in Akebia are incompletely closed distally (W. W. Payne and J. L. Seago 1968).[2]

Taxonomy

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Similar Species

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Members of the genus Akebia

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 13 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

A. longiracemosa (Akebia) · A. pentaphylla (Akebia) · A. quinata (Chocolate Vine) · A. quinata variegated (Chocolate Vine) · A. quinata 'Kohin Nishiki' (Variegated Chocolate Vine) · A. quinata 'Purple Bouquet' (Chocolate Vine) · A. quinata 'Rosea' (Five-Leaf Akebia) · A. quinata 'Shirobana' (Five-Leaf Akebia) · A. quinata 'Shiro Bana' (Shiro Bana Akebia) · A. quinata 'Silver Bells' (Chocolate Vine) · A. quinata 'Variegata' (Five-Leaf Akebia) · A. trifoliata (Chocolate Vine) · A. x pentaphylla (Akebia)

More Info

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Further Reading

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Notes

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Contributors

Identifiers

Footnotes

  1. Dezhao Chen & Tatemi Shimizu "Lardizabalaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 6 Page 440. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  2. "Akebia". in Flora of North America Vol. 3. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
Last Revised: 7/25/2012