桃花猕猴桃 tao hua mi hou tao

Type: China. Guangxi: Guilin, research orchard of Guangxi Institute of Botany, Sep 2001, R. G. Li 0107 (fr.) (holotype, IBK).

Validating Latin diagnosis: that of "Actinidia persicina" (R. G. Li & L. Mo, Guihaia 23: 197. 2003).

Climbing shrubs, deciduous, large. Branchlets brown velutinous, lenticels conspicuous; second-year branches glabrous, lenticels conspicuous; pith brown, laminate. Petiole 2.5-6 cm, brown velutinous when young, glabrescent; leaf blade ovate to broadly ovate, 9-20 × 5-9.5 cm, papery, abaxially glaucous near margin, stellate tomentose when young, glabrescent, lateral veins 6-8 pairs, adaxially glabrous, base rounded or cordatulate, margin finely serrate, apex acute. Inflorescences 1-3-flowered, brown velutinous; peduncle 3-7 mm; pedicel 0.6-1.3 cm. Flowers pink. Sepals 3-5, ovate, ca. 5 mm. Petals 5, obovate, ca. 9 mm. Ovary ovoid, whitish tomentose. Fruit ovoid or oblong, ca. 2 cm, sparsely velutinous; persistent sepals not reflexed. Fl. Apr, fr. Oct.

● Guangxi (Rongshui).

Introduced from Rongshui Xian in 1992, this species is cultivated in the research orchard of the Guangxi Institute of Botany, Guilin. The name was not validly published by Li and Mo in 2003 because no type was indicated (Vienna Code, Art. 37.1). The apparent earlier homonym, "Actinidia persicina" (R. H. Huang & S. M. Wang, J. Wuhan Bot. Res. 13(2): 113. 1995) was not validly published because the herbarium in which the type is conserved was not specified (Art. 37.7).