View source for Hardy Kiwi

{{SPlantbox
|familia=Actinidiaceae
|genus=Actinidia
|species=arguta
|common_name=Hardy Kiwi, Kokuwa, Siberian gooseberry, Etc.
|name_ref=Flora - A Gardener's Encyclopedia
|habit=vine-climber
|habit_ref=Flora - A Gardener's Encyclopedia
|Min ht box=20
|Min ht metric=ft
|Max ht box=30
|Max ht metric=ft
|height_ref=Flora - A Gardener's Encyclopedia
|Min wd box=20
|Min wd metric=ft
|Max wd box=30
|Max wd metric=ft
|width_ref=Flora - A Gardener's Encyclopedia
|origin=Korea, N China, Siberia
|lifespan=perennial
|exposure=sun
|sun_ref=Flora - A Gardener's Encyclopedia
|features=flowers, edible, fruit, foliage
|flower_season=early summer, mid summer, late summer
|flower_ref=Flora - A Gardener's Encyclopedia
|flowers=white
|Temp Metric=°F
|min_zone=3
|usda_ref=Flora - A Gardener's Encyclopedia
|max_zone=9
|sunset_zones=2-10, 12, 14-24, 28, 31-41
|image=Actinidia-arguta.jpg
|image_width=240
|image_caption=Baby Kiwi Fruit
}}
A small, green to purple skinned, [[fruit]] similar to [[kiwifruit]], '''hardy kiwifruit''' is an edible, berry-sized [[fruit]] of a [[Cultivar Group]] of the [[woody plant|woody]] [[vine]] '''''Actinidia arguta'''''. Often sweeter than the [[kiwifruit]], hardy kiwifruit can be eaten whole and need not be peeled. Thin-walled, its exterior is smooth and leathery, providing a deceiving contrast to the fuzzy, brown exterior of its larger sibling fruits.

Common names include ''Kiwi Berry'', ''Baby Kiwi'', ''Hardy Kiwi'', ''Dessert Kiwi'' or ''Cocktail Kiwi'', ''Bower Vine'', ''Tara Vine'', ''Yang-tao''.

Growth Habit: In the forests where it is native, it is a climbing vine (liana), sometimes climbing one hundred feet high into trees. In cultivation it is more well-behaved but must be supported by a trellising system. The plant has a more delicate appearance than regular kiwifruit.

Foliage: Leaves are elongated and generally 2 to 5 inches long and attached to the stem on red petioles. They are usually serrated and far less leathery and fuzzy than regular kiwifruit.

Flowers: The flowers are about one-half inch in diameter, white to cream colored, somewhat fragrant, and produced as singlets to triplets in the leaf axiles. Flowering period extends over several weeks from early May to June, depending on climatic conditions. Plants are dioecious, having male and female flowers on separate plants, thus needing plants of both sexes to produce crops. However, self-fruiting females are known to exist.

Fruit: The fruit are generally green, fuzzless, and the size of grapes. Cut open, they look much like regular kiwifruit with its small black seeds, emerald green color, and typical rayed pattern. Although typically green in both the skin and flesh, some cultivars have various amount of red, either in the skin, flesh or both. Hardy kiwifruits are generally sweeter than regular kiwifruit. Sugar levels vary, ranging from 14% (as with kiwifruit) up to 29%.

Additional differences between cultivars can include perceived aroma of the fruit as well as bitterness of the skin. Commercial cultivation has begun for this crop in many regions of the United States due to the plants ability to grow in harsher climates than the kiwifruit. 

{{Inc|
Actinidia arguta, Miq. (A. polygama., Lauche. not Miq. A. volubilis, Carr., not Miq. A. rufa, Miq.). Fig. 115. High-climbing: branches with brown lamellate pith: lvs. broad-elliptic or broadly ovate, 4—5 in. long, cuneate to subcordate at the base, setosely appressea serrate, glabrous beneath except the setose midrib: fls. 3 or more, white. 3/4in. across; sepals elliptic-oblong, tomentulose; petals brownish at the base: fr. subglobose, greenish yellow, about an inch long, sweet. June. Japan, Korea, Manchuria. {{SCH}}
}}