664.72.00 ActinidiaceaeEnglish: Chinese Gooseberry family.
Botany: 3 genera; Clematoclethra, Saurauia, Actinidia; ± 360 species; small trees or shrubs, or vines; alternate, simple, spiral leaves with serrate or entire margins, without stipules, with flattened bristles; flowers solitary or in terminal cymes; free sepals and petals; stamens are numerous and originally attached at the back; dioecious, monoecious or hermaphroditic; fruit a berry.
TaxonomyThe placement of the
Actinidiaceae in the
Ericales was highly controversial. The USDA
Plants Database still places
Actinidiaceae in Theales. In the
Apg3 classification Actinidiaceae are placed in the
Ericales, strongly supported by genetic evidence, in the Ericoid clade, sister to the
Roridulaceae.