President's house, Massachusetts Agricultural College, Amherst, Massachusetts., Massachusetts, United States, North America
Collection Date:
1 Jul 1919
Notes:
Actinidia polygama diagnostic feature(s) - solid white pith; cordate leaves. The sex of the vine is male as the flower has only anthers and no stigma and style. Vick's Magazine editor Charles W. Seelye (C.W.S.) wrote extensively about this vine in the April 1900 issue of that publication (Volume 23, Number 268, page 208). On pages 199 to 200 of that same magazine issue, the Arnold Arboretum's Alfred Rehder wrote about the confusion associated with this species and A. arguta. Rehder also credits William Penn Brooks as the source of the first true A. polygama vine available in the nursery trade. Brooks was one of William S. Clark's Massachusetts Agricultural College (MAC; now UMASS-Amherst) students who was with him in Sapporo Japan (at the Sapporo Agricultural College [SAC]; now the University of Hokkaido). After Clark returned to MAC in 1877, Brooks stayed on in Sapporo for 12 years to serve as a professor and SAC administrator and planted two male vines of this species in his backyard in Amherst. Professor Brooks later became President of MAC.
Record Last Modified:
26 Jun 2020
Specimen Count:
1
Taxonomy:
Plantae Dicotyledonae Ericales Actinidiaceae
Published Name:
Actinidia polygama (Siebold & Zucc.) Planch. ex Maxim.
