Akebia quinata
NPPA pest plant
Environmental Weed (2024)
Common names
akebia
Biostatus
Exotic
Category
Vascular
Structural class
Lianes & Related Trailing Plants - Dicotyledons
Flower colours
Brown, Violet/Purple
Detailed description
A twining vine with palmate leaves comprising of five or less leaflets that are from 35 to 75 mm long. Has chocolate-purple coloured fragrant flowers 25mm across. Purple-violet flattened sausage shape pods to 100mm. (T. McCluggage pers com)
Similar taxa
A climber with relatively large palmately compound leaves, Akebia quinata is quite distinctive in New Zealand. The fragrant chocolate-purple flowers that give rise to the common name chocolate vine are produced August to October.
Habitat
Terrestrial. In the open to semi shade along forest edges or road sides, climbing over structures or trees.
Conservation status
Not applicable
Detailed taxonomy
Family
Ecology
Flowering
August, September, October
Fruiting
February
Year naturalised
1940
Origin
Japan, China, Korea
Reason for introduction
Ornamental.
Tolerances
Shade and drought tolerant. (T. McCluggage pers com)
Life cycle and dispersal
Perennial. Spreads vegetatively and by seed. Plants are almost certainly wholly or partly self-sterile. Viable seed is produced. Humans (T. McCluggage pers com)
Other information
Etymology
akebia: An adaptation of the Japanese name for these plants
quinata: From the Latin quinque ‘five’, referring to the five-lobed leaves
National Pest Plant Accord species
This plant is listed in the 2020 National Pest Plant Accord. The National Pest Plant Accord (NPPA) is an agreement to prevent the sale and/or distribution of specified pest plants where either formal or casual horticultural trade is the most significant way of spreading the plant in New Zealand. For up to date information and an electronic copy of the 2020 Pest Plant Accord manual (including plant information and images) visit the MPI website.
Environmental Weed (2024)
This plant is named in a list of 386 environmental weeds in New Zealand 2024 prepared by DOC. 759 candidate species were considered for inclusion on this new comprehensive list of environmental weeds in New Zealand. The species considered were drawn from published lists of weed species, lists of plants that must be reported or managed by law if observed, existing national and regional programmes and agreements for pest management, and species already managed by the Department of Conservation (DOC). Candidate species were then assessed to see if they were fully naturalised and whether they have more than minor impacts in natural ecosystems. Read the full report here.
NVS code
The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.
AKEQUI