Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Ranunculales
Family: Lardizabalaceae
Genus: Stauntonia
Species S. hexaphylla
Scientific name: Stauntonia hexaphylla
Synonyms: Rajania hexaphylla, Stauntonia hexaphylla var. rotunda, Stauntonia hexaphylla var. obovate, Stauntonia hexaphylla var. cordata
Common name: Stauntonia vine
Stauntonia hexaphylla is an evergreen, vigorous, twining climber native to the thickets and woodlands in lowland Myanmar, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. It can grow to 10 m high and can have a spread of 7 m.
It has palmate leaves composed mostly of between three and seven leathery, elliptic leaflets.
In later in spring racemes of fragrant small, white pastel-purple coloured, bell-shaped, 2 cm flowers develop.
This vine is dioecious. Male and female flowers are on racemes on separate plants. Male and female plants are needed to produce fruit. It is not self-fertile and needs insects or pollination by hand to produce fruit.
Flowers are followed by edible, ovoid, purplish, 5cm fruits.
The fruits are eaten raw or cooked. They are sweet with a honey-like flavour. It is highly esteemed as a dessert fruit in Japan.
Thanks to Wikipedia for text and information: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
