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Actinidia rufa; photograph (c) 許慶棠Ray, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) 許慶棠Ray, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2025-04-06

Actinidia rufa (Siebold & Zucc.) Planch. ex Miq.

Reddish-brown hardy kiwi

Actinidiaceae · Japan, Korea +2

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Actinidia rufa, photograph (c) 賴碧珠, some rights reserved (CC BY)Actinidia rufa, photograph (c) 賴碧珠, some rights reserved (CC BY)Actinidia rufa, photograph (c) 賴碧珠, some rights reserved (CC BY)Actinidia rufa, photograph (c) 賴碧珠, some rights reserved (CC BY)Actinidia rufa, photograph (c) 賴碧珠, some rights reserved (CC BY)Actinidia rufa, photograph (c) 許慶棠Ray, some rights reserved (CC BY) 93 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
3.4°C
Record low -2.2 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
28°C
Jul at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
3,440mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
16–36DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes April to October, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Actinidia rufa is a species of flowering plant in the Chinese gooseberry family Actinidiaceae, native to Taiwan, some of the southwestern South Korean islands, the Ryukyu Islands, and southern and south-central Japan. A large climbing shrub, it is found in mountain forests at elevations from 1,000 to 2,000 m (3,300 to 6,600 ft). As a crop wild relative of kiwifruit, it is being studied for its resistance to frost and to bacterial canker of kiwifruit.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Actinidia rufa", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Actinidia

Actinidia is a genus of woody and, with a few exceptions, dioecious plants native to temperate eastern Asia, occurring throughout most of China, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan, and extending north to southern areas of Russian Far East and south into Indochina. The genus includes shrubs growing to 6 metres tall, and vigorous, strong-growing vines, growing up to 30 m (100 ft) in tree canopies. They mostly tolerate temperatures down to around −15 °C (5 °F), and some are much hardier.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Actinidia", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (2,386 mm of 3,110 mm) falls in April to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 23.3 °C against a yearly mean of 19.9 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: October to April.

Rain

3,110 mm in the median year at the habitat, 2,386 mm of it April to October. Wettest month September at 480 mm, driest month January at 104 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 2,386 mm to 4,530 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 3,440 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 3,110 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 36 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 13, the highest 90th-percentile month 39).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 3.4 °C, the absolute minimum -2.2 °C, 14 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 30.8 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 9.6 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 3.5 °C to 14.3 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 27.5 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 3.4 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 63 to 68% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -275 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Actinidia rufa through the yearWarmest month July, mean daily high 28 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 9.6 °C; 3,110 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost30.8° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-2.2° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0200400600800mm rainDLI 16–36RH 63–68%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 149 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C15 / 9–1816 / 10–1919 / 13–2121 / 17–2424 / 20–2626 / 22–2828 / 24–2927 / 24–2926 / 23–2723 / 20–2520 / 16–2317 / 12–19
Night °C10 / 4–1411 / 4–1513 / 7–1616 / 11–1919 / 15–2221 / 17–2423 / 18–2624 / 18–2622 / 17–2518 / 15–2315 / 11–2011 / 6–16
Rain mm104 / 52–274163 / 79–333193 / 109–268226 / 154–274324 / 237–479412 / 289–622337 / 197–615381 / 270–634480 / 264–634226 / 106–562156 / 54–458108 / 49–303
DLI16 / 13–2220 / 15–2426 / 21–3030 / 26–3432 / 28–3632 / 30–3436 / 33–3934 / 31–3629 / 27–3124 / 21–2819 / 16–2316 / 13–21
RH %64 / 56–7365 / 56–7365 / 57–7366 / 59–7167 / 62–7168 / 65–7168 / 65–7168 / 66–7168 / 63–7266 / 59–7265 / 57–7363 / 55–73
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 149 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (283 records in those cells; 3 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1324:6026 (23.775, 121.325). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -2.2 °C, 1st-percentile night 3.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 30.8 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 149 distinct grid cells holding 283 of the 286 in-range records (3 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1324:6026 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 24.00_121.250, lapse-corrected -275 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1048 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeJapan, Korea, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker24.904, 121.497 · in the densest population, 249 records (51% of those in range)
Kew's description“climbing shrub” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 487 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 283 of them in the land cells it reads, of 286 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 255 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 240 km away. 9 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 201 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 487 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Actinidia rufa, photograph 1did not loadActinidia rufa, photograph 2did not loadActinidia rufa, photograph 3did not loadActinidia rufa, photograph 4did not loadActinidia rufa, photograph 5did not loadActinidia rufa, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) 賴碧珠, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5); (c) 許慶棠Ray, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Lepisorus superficialis Lepisorus superficialis Polypodiaceae Photo: CC BY, 胡正恆(Jackson Hu)Boehmeria sieboldiana Boehmeria sieboldiana Siebold’s falsenettle Photo: CC BY, 黃美滿Leptochilus hemionitideus Leptochilus hemionitideus Polypodiaceae Photo: CC BY, Sophia LeeElaeocarpus japonicus Elaeocarpus japonicus Elaeocarpaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, 許文俊Asplenium antiquum Asplenium antiquum Bird’s-nest fern Photo: CC BY, Cheng-Te Hsu Trichomanes auriculatum Hymenophyllaceae

Other Actinidia 10 in the reference

Actinidia arguta Actinidia arguta Tara vine Photo: CC BY, Repina TatyanaActinidia callosa Actinidia callosa Actinidiaceae Photo: CC BY, 黃美滿Actinidia chinensis Actinidia chinensis Kiwi Photo: CC BY, Jon SullivanActinidia eriantha Actinidia eriantha Velvetvine Photo: CC BY, angryphycoActinidia kolomikta Actinidia kolomikta Arctic beauty kiwi Photo: CC BY, Violetta DzizyurovaActinidia macrosperma Actinidia macrosperma Actinidiaceae Photo: CC BY, Sun Jiao Actinidia melanandra Red kiwi Actinidia pilosula Actinidia pilosula Actinidiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Steve Law from Henfield, EnglandActinidia polygama Actinidia polygama Silver vine Photo: CC BY, 村山史世　（Fumiyo MURAYAMA)Actinidia rubricaulis Actinidia rubricaulis Actinidiaceae Photo: CC0, 江国彬

Names & registers

Also known as Actinidia arguta subsp. rufa; Actinidia arguta var. rufa; Actinidia callosa subsp. ephippioidea; Actinidia callosa subsp. formosana; Actinidia callosa subsp. henryi and 6 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Actinidiaceae
Described by
(Siebold & Zucc.) Planch. ex Miq.
Native to
Japan, Korea, Nansei-shoto +1
Wild records
487 in range · 255 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-21
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 6 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (2 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 4 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 24.00_121.250, lapse-corrected -275 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21found by its label; its IPNI identifier 828407-1 is Kew's for Actinidia rufa (Siebold & Zucc.) Planch. ex Miq.
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 37 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…