Actinidia five small petals. Most of the species are dioecious with separate male and female plants, but some are monoecious. The fruit is a large berry containing numerous small seeds; in most species, the fruit is edible. In particular, this genus is known for the species "Actinidia deliciosa", the kiwifruit or Chinese gooseberry, and for the hardy ornamental "A. kolomikta". "Actinidia" macrofossils have been recovered from the late Zanclean stage of Pliocene sites in Pocapaglia, Italy. The 40–60 species of "Actinidia" include: Kiwifruit is a cultivar group of "A. deliciosa", and hardy kiwi is the species "Actinidia arguta", which has small
Gooseberry varieties from seed, their efforts having been chiefly directed to increasing the size of the fruit. Of the many hundred sorts enumerated in recent horticultural works, few perhaps equal in flavour some of the older denizens of the fruit-garden, such as the "Old Rough Red" and "Hairy Amber". The climate of the British Isles seems peculiarly adapted to bring the gooseberry to perfection, and it may be grown successfully even in the most northern parts of Scotland; indeed, the flavour of the fruit is said to improve with increasing latitude. In Norway even, the bush flourishes in gardens on the