India, Jan. 30 -- A wild relative of the kiwi fruit, previously known only from China and northern Myanmar, has been recorded in India for the first time from Arunachal Pradesh, adding a new species to the country's flora and highlighting the ecological links between the Eastern Himalaya and East Asia.
The discovery of Actinidia eriantha was made in the Ziro Valley of Lower Subansiri district and has been documented by Gyati Yam and Joynath Pegu of Nagaland University, along with Om Prakash Tripathi of Mizoram University, in a study published in the journal Feddes Repertorium.
Actinidia is a small genus of around 55 species, largely distributed across the temperate regions of East Asia, with China recognised as its main centre of diver...