36 Arnoldia 76/2 • November 2018

Hidden Gem Among Vines: Actinidia arguta

Rachel A. Brinkman

he hardy kiwi (Actinidia arguta) is a worthy plant (accession 905-85*A) is located vigorous vine with fruits that you are on the second vine terrace in the Leventritt Tunlikely to find at your local grocery Garden, twinning up a steel trellis. This acces- store. The grape-sized nuggets are like the large sion was received from the Chollipo Arboretum kiwifruit (A. deliciosa), simply smaller and hair- in 1985, which collected the seed on Mount less. When you cut open the dusky fruit, which Gaya, in North Gyeongsang Province, South sometimes blushes from green to red, you’ll Korea. I’m partial to its sweet wild-tasting fruit see a firework design of lime-colored flesh with and its impressive girth at the base, which an inner ring of tiny chocolate-brown seeds. sprouts into twisting curls on the trellis. Two The taste of A. arguta fruit is similar to the additional plants (accession 403-97*B and C) on commercial kiwifruit, but I find it milder, with the upper terrace of the Leventritt represent a less acidic tang. A connoisseur might describe a wild provenance in Jilin Province, China, where more sophisticated bouquet of flavors. seed was collected from a deciduous moun- My first experience with this plant was tain forest by the North America-China Plant back in college when a horticulture professor Exploration Consortium (NACPEC). These two brought a basket of the fruit for the class to plants have been trained to arch over the path, sample. I was amazed that the fruit existed— allowing visitors to view the beautiful structure a bite-sized, thin-skinned version of one of of the vine from beneath. my favorite fruits. I quickly became obsessed Buds that produce flowers and fruits occur with the vine, but I did not encounter it again on the interior portion of the current year’s until I came to the Arnold Arboretum where growth—usually obscured beneath the foliage. I got to experience the plant as a whole: the Actinidia arguta vines are typically dioecious, glossy leaves borne on bright red petioles, the which means that two vines are needed to pro- exfoliating bark, and the delicate and rather duce fruit—one with female flowers, the other inconspicuous white flowers. Native to north- with male flowers. The flowers may look very eastern Asia, Actinidia arguta numbers among similar, however, because most flowers have sixty different species in the genus, but only both male and female parts, but only the males a handful of these can be grown in colder cli- produce viable pollen and only the females have mates. The common species, A. deliciosa, is properly developed structures for receiving pol- only hardy to USDA Zone 8, which means the len and developing fruit. To confuse matters, species cannot be grown in New England, while some plants can produce both male and female A. arguta can survive to a remarkable Zone 3. flowers, and others have been reported with The Arboretum currently holds five additional perfect flowers. The species may even change kiwi species, which all produce edible fruit in sexual expression from year to year. The speci- various colors and shapes. mens of A. arguta that I have observed at the Despite the taste and ornamental foliage, Arboretum have never been consistent in their Actinidia arguta is a fast-growing vine that has fruit production. escaped from cultivation in western Massachu- Hardy kiwi may never become a common setts, the New York metro, and northern New fruit crop, and perhaps, given its swift growth Jersey. This complicates any recommendation and ability to escape from cultivation, it never to introduce the species (which can climb more should. Yet as you stroll through the pathways than thirty feet in a single season) as a more of the Arboretum, don’t forget to stop to inves- widespread fruit crop, although I have never tigate our winding vines; you may discover hid- observed any spontaneous seedlings on the den gems nestled beneath the leaves. grounds of the Arboretum. Three of our accessions of this species rep- Rachel A. Brinkman is the assistant manager of resent wild provenances. A particularly note- horticulture at the Arnold Arboretum.