Kadsura Species

This tropical climber is indigenous to mountainous regions of SE Asia, where it inhabits shady areas at 800-2000m that remain reasonably ...Read Morehumid and receive regular moisture. While its bizarre, edible fruit is valued in ethnobotany, little information seems to be available concerning commercial viability. Virtually absent from western collections, it doesn't seem to have a common name in English.

Like members of the closely related Schisandra genus and other Kadsura species, this one is often reported as dioecious, but is actually monoecious, although evolved in a manner that discourages self-pollination. And like other members of these two genera, this one succeeds in well drained, but consistently moist soil, with minimal exposure to direct sunlight in hot climates. This particular species seems to be most closely related to the more widely known Kadsura coccinea, which is commercially cultivated in nearby China. No winter hardiness information seems apparent for this species, but if it behaves like its relatives, it is evergreen in tropical areas but deciduous in more temperate zones.