ACTINIDIACEAE
Morphological description
Woody; trees or shrubs, strigose or spinescent, exstipulate.
Leaves, simple, usually spiral, usually dentate, penninerved.
Flowers
Flowers bisexual, actinomorphic, 5-merous; sepals free, petals fused at base, stamens numerous, fused with base of corolla; ovary superior, styles free, as many as ovary cells, ovules numerous, axillary.
Fruit
Fruit a berry.
Spot characters (Van Balgooy):
Actinidiaceae leaf margin dentate/ serrate (p.p.); Actinidia climbers without hooks/tendrils, stamens numerous; Saurauia ant plants, schopfbaume, armed plants (p.p.), stellate hairs (p.p.), leaves opposite in spiral-leaved families (p.p.), Dicots with large leaves (p.p.), cystoliths, cauliflorous (p.p.),inflorescence subterranean (p.p.),I nflorescence compact (in a head) (p.p.), stamens numerous, ripe fruits white (p.p.).
Different from: Dilleniaceae: petals free, carpels free, seeds arillate. — Theaceae: flowers with a pair of bracteoles; fruit rarely a berry, usually dry.
Distribution: The family widespread in tropics and subtropics. In Malesia 2 genera: - Actinidia (East Asia, West Malesia), climbers; - Saurauia (Neotropics, Indo-Australia), shrubs or trees.
Notes: Actinidia and Saurauia have been included in other families (Dilleniaceae, Theaceae) and have also been placed in separate families in their own right. — Actinidia sinensis* is cultivated for its edible fruit. — Several species of Saurauia are (potential) ornamentals
Literature: C.G.G.J. van Steenis, Fl. Males. I, 4 (1948) 37-39 (Actinidia); R.D. Hoogland, Tree Fl. Mal. 4 (1989) 1-8 (Saurauia).
Image in PhytoImages of Actinidia