Kiwi

The producer of kiwifruit, this taxon is widely cultivated in China and elsewhere.

Actinidia chinensis var. lageniformis S. Y. Wang & C. F. Chen (J. Henan Agric. Coll. 4: 82. 1981) and A. chinensis var. nephrocarpa S. Y. Wang & C. F. Chen (loc. cit.), both described from Henan, could not be treated here because no material was seen by the authors.

Climbing shrubs, large, deciduous. Branchlets reddish, with paler oblong lenticels, young branchlets white pubescent to brownish long strigose or densely ferruginous hispid-setose; pith whitish to brown, large, lamellate. Petiole 3-6(-10) cm, white pubescent or brownish long strigose to densely ferruginous hispid-setose; leaf blade abaxially pale green, adaxially dark green, broadly ovate to broadly obovate or suborbicular, 6-17 × 7-15 cm, papery, abaxially whitish or brownish stellate tomentose, adaxially usually glabrous, occasionally ± puberulent, especially more densely so on midvein and lateral veins, or densely scabrid-hispid throughout, midvein and lateral veins conspicuous abaxially, subconspicuous adaxially, lateral veins 5-8 pairs, furcate above middle, veinlets in parallel cross-bars, conspicuous abaxially, base rounded to truncate to cordatulate, margin setose-serrulate with teeth terminating tips of veinlets, apex truncate to emarginate to abruptly cuspidate or shortly acuminate. Inflorescences cymose, 1-3-flowered, white silky-tomentose or yellowish brown velutinous; peduncles 0.7-1.5 cm; pedicels 0.9-1.5 cm; bracts linear, ca. 1 mm. Flowers orange-yellow. Sepals (3-)5(-7), broadly ovate to oblong-ovate, 6-10 mm, both surfaces densely yellowish tomentose. Petals (3-)5(-8), rarely with a second whorl of 2 smaller petals, broadly obovate, 1-2 cm, shortly clawed at base, rounded at apex. Filaments 5-10 mm; anthers yellow, oblong, 1.5-2 mm, sagittate at base or not, apex acute to rounded. Ovary globose, ca. 5 mm in diam., densely golden villous. Fruit subglobose to cylindric to obovoid or ellipsoidal, 4-6 cm, densely tomentose when young, glabrous when mature to densely hispid, with many brownish lenticels; persistent sepals reflexed. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Sep. 2n = 58*, 116*, 174*.

Anhui, Chongqing, Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang.

● Mountain forests, sparse secondary forests, tall grassy thickets on low mountains, thickets; 200-2600 m.