A new edible ornamental kiwifruit cultivar Mantianhong No.2

Abstract: Mantianhong No.2, bred by Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, is a new edible and ornamental kiwifruit cultivar. It was selected from the open-pollinated seeds of Actinid-ia eriantha Bentham which usually has red flowers and white indumenta on the branchlets, buds, abaxi-al leaf surface, petioles, inflorescences and sepals. Twenty-eight seedlings of A. eriantha were planted in 2001, among them one plant had red flowers in bloom and bore a relatively small fruits in 2004, and the buds of it were then grafted onto five plants of A. chinensis var. deliciosa in 2005. One grafted plant numbered‘1-16-3-2’stably had red flowers in bloom in 2010, and bore fruit with a bigger size and a better flavor than those of the parent, and the soluble solids content of the fruit was 16% higher than that of the parent. Five plants from the‘1-16-3-2’were grafted in 2011, and they all bore fruit with a stable yield level and quality in both 2012 and 2013. After several generations of grafting, they still had stable yields and fruit quality. In addition, they were also cultivated in other three regions of Hubei prov- ince, including Danjiangkou, Yichang and Enshi, and tested trees in Danjiangkou, Yichang and Enshi showed better comprehensive behaviors than those in Wuhan. In 2020, Mantianhong No.2 obtained the national Plant Variety Rights (CNA20172333.1) from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. The vines are slightly vigorous or mild-vigorous. The apricus surface of one-year-old shoot is yellowish brown, and densely covered by a thick layer of dirty yellow tomentum, and the internodes are 29-40 mm long. The two-year-old stems are brown, sparsely covered with white ash-like downy hairs. The leaves are thick and chartaceous, somewhat brittle and easily damaged, heart form in shape. The leaf blade is 100-130 mm long and 80-130 mm wide. The flowers are mainly solitary. The flowers stalk is 33.87 mm long, light green, and covered with white tomentum. The calyx has 5-7 petals, which are ob- long or obtuse at apex with wrinkled strips, brownish white. The opening flowers are pink to red, with 6- 8 petals. The corollas are 42.91 mm in diameter. The petals are nearly elliptic. There are 35.65 stamens  per flower, filaments are 2-3 mm long, and pink near to petals. The pistils average are rudimentary and overshadowed. The ovarys are 1-1.3 mm long and 0.8- 1.0 mm wide. The fruit weights is 84.28 g with maximum 106 g, twice to three times larger than most fruits of A. eriantha collected from the wild. The typical fruit is cylindrical with very small, round or slightly long round fruit spots. The fruit skin is brownish green, and densely covered with abundant brown hairs. The fruit shoulder is truncate and the fruit apex is slightly flat. The fruits are difficultly peeled. The fruit flesh is yellow, fine textured and smooth. The fruit core is small, oval shape and yellowish white. The fruit flavor is good and sweet. The soluble solid contents (SSC) range from 16.9%, the total sugars comtent is 10.48%, the titratable acids is 1.31%, and the vitamin C contents is 101 mg · 100 g^{- 1} fresh weight. The concentrations of K, Ca in fruit are 335 mg·kg^-1 and 46.5 mg·kg^-1, respectively. The fruits can be stored in ambient condition for four months. In Wuhan region, the time of bud break is mild march, and the time of flowering is mild-April. The time of fruit mature is mild-September or late-September. The fruit development period is about 165 days. This new cultivar is suitably cultivated in the regions with the average temperature in winter above -3 ℃, such as Hubei, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Fujian provinces. It has a moderate disease re-sistance. It is susceptible to the soft rot disease when exposed to raining during the flowering and early stages of fruit development. In case of extreme low temperature or cold spell in later spring, it is also easily infected with bacterial canker disease. Thus, it is recommended that this new cultivar should be cultivated in the condition of avoiding excessive rainfall.