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Actinidia kolomikta (Maxim. & Rupr.) Maxim.

Modern name

Actinidia kolomikta (Rupr. & Maxim.) Maxim.

A slender climber, growing 20 or more ft high. Leaves ovate-oblong, heart-shaped or sometimes rounded at the base, 3 to 6 in. long, the largest 3 to 4 in. wide; only slightly bristly above and beneath when quite young, the margins set with teeth of unequal size. The foliage is purplish when young, and later in the season is usually more or less variegated, sometimes the apex, sometimes half the leaf, and occasionally the whole leaf being white or pink. Flowers fragrant, produced one to three together, each 12 in. across; petals white, anthers yellow, stigmas sessile. Fruit not beaked. The chief merit of this climber is in its curious and often very striking leaf-colouring. It is perhaps, the weakest grower of all the actinidias, and supports 6 ft and upwards high are needed. The pith is brown and chambered (lamellate). Native of Manchuria, China and Japan, flowering in June; illustrated in Bot. Mag., t. 9093. Its veins beneath and the leaf-stalk are slightly downy, but not so conspicuously bristly as in A. polygama (q.v.). There is a large and thriving specimen on a wall at Wisley in the R.H.S. Garden. The leaf-colouring is not fully developed on young plants and even adult plants may not show it if they are grown in too much shade.


Genus

Actinidia

Other species in the genus