Botany Photo of the Day

Chinese gooseberry, kiwifruit and Macaque peach are only a few of the common names for this woody vine. The sixty or so species of Actinidia are native to temperate eastern Asia with a range stretching from Siberia to Indochina. The association of the name “kiwifruit” with this plant was a successful marketing tactic by New Zealand growers. However, since the name was not trademarked (and any entity can therefore sell “kiwifruit”), a trademark name is now being used to identify fruit originating from New Zealand as opposed to other countries, Zespri™ (no comment). Wikipedia goes into more detail about the evolution of the common name for Actinidia deliciosa in its entry on kiwifruit. Purdue's Centre for New Crops and Plant Products also has a detailed report from an economic botany perspective.

This particular plant at UBC Botanical Garden stretches about 20m high, weaving its way up through the branches of a western red cedar (in fact, it is rooted about 5m behind the stump from yesterday's photograph). Ripe fruit are never harvested, due to squirrels sampling nearly every fruit. Occasionally, the squirrels cause the fruit to drop on unsuspecting visitors.

Photography resource link: Dr. Ian Cumming is a Professor Emeritus in UBC's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. On his official ECE web page, however, Ian shares his wildflower and hiking photographs (with an emphasis on British Columbia).