Actinidia melanandra Franch.

Climbing shrubs, mid-sized, deciduous. Branchlets reddish, glabrous, lenticels inconspicuous; pith white to pale brown, lamellate. Petiole 1.5-5.5 cm, glabrous; leaf blade abaxially glaucous, adaxially green, ovate-lanceolate, ovate-oblong, oblong, or ovate, sometimes orbicular, 6.2-13.5 × 2.6-5 cm, papery to leathery, glabrous, abaxially barbate in axils of lateral veins or not barbate, midvein and lateral veins abaxially subconspicuous to conspicuous, adaxially subconspicuous, lateral veins 6 or 7 pairs, veinlets reticulate, abaxially inconspicuous to subconspicuous, adaxially inconspicuous, base cuneate to rounded or truncate, occasionally cordatulate, sometimes oblique, margin sharply serrate or minutely serrulate, apex shortly acuminate to acuminate. Inflorescences cymose, slightly tomentose, 1- or 2-branched, 1-7-flowered; peduncles 1-1.2 cm; pedicels 0.7-1.5 cm; bracts linear, minute, 1-2 mm. Flowers greenish to yellowish white or paper-white. Sepals (4 or)5, ovate to oblong-ovate, 3-7 mm, glabrous, sometimes ciliate. Petals (4 or)5(or 6), cuneate-ovate to orbicular-ovate, 0.6-1.3 cm. Filaments 2.5-3 mm; anthers black, oblong, 2-3.5 mm, sagittate at base. Ovary bottle-shaped, ca. 7 mm, glabrous; styles 4-5 mm. Fruit globose to oblong, 2-4.5 cm, glabrous, lenticels absent, rostrate at apex; sepals caducous. Seeds 2-3 mm. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Sep. 2n = 58*, 116*.

?Anhui, Chongqing, Fujian, Gansu, Guizhou, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan, Zhejiang.

● Broad-leaved forests, mountain forests, moist places, also widely cultivated; 1000-1600 m.

Actinidia melanandra, known as purple kiwi or red kiwi is a fruiting plant in the genus Actinidia, which contains three commercially grown species of kiwifruit. The plant is native to parts of Hubei, Sichuan, and Yunnan provinces of China. The fruit has a fuzzy purple skin with reddish flesh. Although the fruit is edible, is not commercially cultivated, however it is occasionally sold as a landscape plant under the erroneous name Actinidia melandra.