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Actinidia tetramera var. maloides

Interesting Facts

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Description

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Family Actinidiaceae

Trees , shrubs , or woody vines . Leaves alternate, simple , shortly or long petiolate , not stipulate . Flowers bisexual or unisexual or plants polygamous or functionally dioecious, usually fascicled, cymose , or paniculate . Sepals (2 or 3 or) 5, imbricate, rarely valvate . Petals (4 or) 5, sometimes more, imbricate. Stamens 10 to numerous , distinct or adnate to base of petals, hypogynous; anthers 2-celled, versatile, dehiscing by apical pores or longitudinally. Ovary superior, disk absent, locules and carpels 3-5 or more; placentation axile ; ovules anatropous with a single integument, 10 or more per locule; styles as many as carpels, distinct or connate (then only one style), generally persistent . Fruit a berry or leathery capsule. Seeds not arillate , with usually large embryos and abundant endosperm.

Three genera and ca. 357 species: Asia and the Americas; three genera (one endemic) and 66 species (52 endemic) in China.

Economically, kiwifruit (Actinidia chinensis var. deliciosa) is an important fruit, which originated in central China and is especially common along the Yangtze River (well known as yang-tao) . Now, it is widely cultivated throughout the world.[1]

Genus Actinidia

Climbing shrubs , glabrous or hairy , indumentum of stellate or simple hairs ; pith solid or lamellate . Branches usually with linear , lengthwise lenticels ; winter buds small, enclosed in swollen base of petiole or exposed. Leaves often long petiolate ; stipules minute, obsolete , or absent; leaf blade membranous, papery , or leathery, venation penniveined, veinlets reticulate , usually in cross-bars, margin serrate or dentate , rarely entire. Inflorescences cymose , axillary , often pseudo-umbellate, few- or many flowered, or flowers solitary; bracts present, minute. Flowers white, pink, red, yellow, or green, bisexual , plants polygamous or functionally dioecious. Sepals (2-) 5(or 6), distinct or connate at base, imbricate, rarely valvate , persistent or not. Petals (4 or) 5(or more than 5), imbricate. Stamens numerous , in functionally female flowers often with shorter filaments and smaller sterile anthers ; filaments slender; anthers yellow, brown, purple, or black, versatile, attached at middle , 2-celled, dehiscing lengthwise, usually divaricate at base. Disk absent. Ovary ovoid , cylindrical, or bottle-shaped, glabrous or hairy, many loculed; ovules numerous per locule; styles as many as carpels (15-30), usually reflexed , persistent, radiating, in functionally female flower elongating after anthesis ; rudimentary ovary in functionally male flower very small, with minute styles. Fruit a berry, globose , ovoid, or oblong , spotted with lenticels or not, glabrous or hairy. Seeds numerous, oblong, small, immersed in pulp; testa cartilaginous , reticulate-pitted; albumen copious and abundant; embryo comparatively large, cylindrical, straight, at center of albumen; cotyledons short.

About 55 species: E and S Asia; 52 species (44 endemic) in China.[2]

Taxonomy

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Notes

Publishing author : C.Y.Wu Publication : Fl. Yunnan. 1: 69 (1977) .

An accepted name in the RHS Horticultural Database.

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Actinidia

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 28 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

A. arguta (Bower Actinidia) · A. arguta var. cordifolia 'Meyer's' (Kiwi) · A. arguta var. purpurea (Bower Actinidia) · A. arguta var. rufa (Rufa Vine) · A. arguta 'Ananasnaja' (Hardy Kiwi) · A. arguta 'Chico' (Hardy Kiwi) · A. arguta 'Dumbarton Oaks' (Hardy Kiwi) · A. arguta 'Issai' (Bower Actinidia) · A. chinensis (Chinese Gooseberry) · A. chinensis var. rufopulpa (Red-Fleshed Actinidia) · A. chinensis 'Hayward' (Chinese Gooseberry) · A. chinensis 'Hort22D' (Kiwi Fruit 'hort22d') · A. chinensis 'Saanichton 12' (Chinese Gooseberry) · A. chinensis 'Y118' (Kiwi Fruit 'y118') · A. deliciosa (Chinese Gooseberry) · A. deliciosa var. coloris (Red-Fleshed Actinidia) · A. deliciosa 'Au Authur' (Kiwi Fruit 'au Authur') · A. deliciosa 'Skelton A16' (Kiwi Fruit 'skelton A16') · A. deliciosa 'Tsechelidis' (Kiwi Fruit 'tsechelidis') · A. eriantha (Velvet Vine) · A. hemsleyana (Long-Leaved Actinidia Vine) · A. kolomikta (Arctic Beauty Kiwi) · A. macrosperma (Orange-Fleshed Actinidia) · A. pilosula (Actinidia) · A. polygama (Silver Vine) · A. rubricaulis (Red-Stem Actinidia) · A. rubricaulis var. coriacea (Kiwi Fruit) · A. 'Ken's Red' (Hardy Kiwi)

More Info

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Further Reading

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Notes

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Contributors

Identifiers

Footnotes

  1. Jianqiang Li, Li Xinwei & D. Doel Soejarto "Actinidiaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 12 Page 334,364. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  2. "Actinidia". in Flora of China Vol. 12 Page 334. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
Last Revised: 2012-07-27