Actinidia hemsleyana

Actinidia hemsleyana is a woody vine from China. It belongs to the Actinidiaceae family. It grows wild in northern Fujian, eastern Jiangxi, and southern Zhejiang. Kew places it in the temperate biome, a mild climate zone. Wild plants grow in thickets on mountain slopes. These sites lie about 1,640–2,950 feet [500–900 metres] above sea level. The species is not native to Britain or Ireland.

Plants For A Future lists its height as 30 feet [9 metres]. It is deciduous: it sheds its leaves rather than keeping them year-round. Its climbing form lets it fill space above the ground. The supplied species account gives no details about its leaves or bark. It lists woodland edges and spots with dappled shade as garden sites. These offer places for it within a woodland garden.

Flowers appear from May to June, and seeds ripen in November. Each plant bears either male or female flowers. A lone plant cannot fertilise itself. Grow both sexes together to get seed. Bees and other insects carry pollen between the flowers. The fruit is narrow and shaped like a tube. It reaches about 0.09 feet [0.027 metres] in length. Its width reaches about 0.05 feet [0.015 metres]. The skin loses its hairs once the fruit is fully ripe.

You can eat the fruit fresh or cook it. It holds many small seeds that you can eat with it. Plants For A Future rates its food value three out of five. That source lists no known hazards. Yet it gives no full review of its safety. It lists no uses as medicine or for other purposes. These gaps do not prove safety for every person or animal.

The species account lists moist soil and sun or partial shade. It accepts sandy, loamy, and clay soils. The soil can be mildly acid, neutral, or mildly alkaline. How much cold it can bear remains unclear. The account calls it frost tender. The growing notes say its hardiness in Britain remains unknown. Those notes use the needs of the genus as a whole. They do not draw on trials of this species. To grow it from seed, sow in spring under glass. Fresh seed may sprout within two to three months. Stored seed can take longer. Young seedlings can suffer from the disease called damping off. The seed-growing account says to keep seedlings under glass through their first winter.