Akebia quinata
Akebia
chocolate-vine, five-leaf, five-leaf akebia
chocolate vine
petiole 1.6-12.5 cm;
leaflets mostly 5, petiolules 0.2-2.2 cm, blades oblong to ovate-elliptic, 0.7-8.2 × 0.4-4.2 cm, base rounded, margins entire, apex retuse.
palmately compound;
leaflets 3-5, articulate at base of blade and at base of petiolule.
pendent, 4.5-12 cm;
pedicel with basal bracts.
racemose, pistillate flowers proximal to staminate flowers in each raceme.
fragrant.
dimorphic: pistillate flowers larger and longer pediceled than staminate flowers;
sepals mostly brownish to purplish.
4-15 per inflorescence, 1.2-1.6 cm diam.;
sepals oblong to ovate or elliptic, 5-9 mm;
stamens 4-5 mm.
pistillodes present.
(0-)1-5 per inflorescence, 2-3 cm diam.;
sepals elliptic to ovate or nearly orbiculate, 10 16mm;
pistils 3-7, 1 or more maturing.
pistils (3-)-8(-15);
placentation laminar;
staminodes present.
follicles, fleshy, dehiscent along adaxial suture.
black, ovoid, embedded in whitish pulp.
100-several hundred.
glaucous, violet to dark purple, oblong, 5-15 cm.
, twining.
= 16.
Akebia quinata
Akebia
No specimens are known from Rhode Island.
A fast-growing, invasive vine whose aggressiveness may at times approach that of Lonicera japonica, Akebia quinata is occasionally planted as an ornamental; it is of more botanical than horticultural interest. A greenish to whitish flowered variant, known from Asia, is cultivated in North America. The edible, though allegedly insipid, fruits are apparently uncommon in cultivation; cross pollination appears to be necessary for their development (C. S. Sargent 1891).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Species 4 (1 in the flora).
Pistils in Akebia are incompletely closed distally (W. W. Payne and J. L. Seago 1968).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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