1. Akebia Decaisne, Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat. 1: 195. 1839.
[Japanese akebi, name for Akebia quinata]
Vines , twining. Leaves palmately compound; leaflets 3-5, articulate at base of blade and at base of petiolule. Inflorescences racemose, pistillate flowers proximal to staminate flowers in each raceme. Flowers dimorphic: pistillate flowers larger and longer pediceled than staminate flowers; sepals mostly brownish to purplish. Staminate flowers: pistillodes present. Pistillate flowers: pistils (3-)-8(-15); placentation laminar; staminodes present. Fruits follicles, fleshy, dehiscent along adaxial suture. Seeds 100-several hundred. x = 16.
Species 4 (1 in the flora): North America, Asia.
Pistils in Akebia are incompletely closed distally (W. W. Payne and J. L. Seago 1968).
SELECTED REFERENCES
Anderson, E. 1934. The genus Akebia. Bull. Popular Inform. Arnold Arbor., ser. 4, 2: 17-20. Payne, W. W. and J. L. Seago. 1968. The open conduplicate carpel of Akebia quinata (Berberidales: Lardizabalaceae). Amer. J. Bot. 55: 575-581. Sargent, C. S. 1891. The fruit of Akebia quinata. Gard. & Forest 4: 136-137.
