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Abstract
Seeds of the green‐fleshed kiwifruit, Actinidia deliciosa, were introduced into New Zealand in 1904. Descendants of the first plants produced from these seeds were used for the development of the kiwifruit industry first in New Zealand and then in other countries. In 1899, the English nursery firm of James Veitch & Sons, Ltd sent E. H. Wilson to China to collect plants suitable for the temperate gardens of Europe and North America. Wilson was based at Ichang, a small port on the Yangzi River just downstream from the Three Gorges. In 1900, Wilson sent seeds of A. deliciosa to Britain and plants were being offered there for sale in 1904. Wilson is therefore directly responsible for the first significant introduction of the green kiwifruit to Europe. At about the same time, kiwifruit seeds and plants were obtained from Wilson and sent to the United States. However, these introductions to Britain and the United States remained as ornamental plants and did not develop into commercial production, partly because of the need for both male and female plants. Wilson was probably indirectly responsible for kiwifruit seeds coming to New Zealand. In 1900 he made the kiwifruit known to the European residents of Ichang. One such resident was a missionary from New Zealand, Katie Fraser. Her sister, Isabel Fraser, visited Ichang in 1903 and when she returned to New Zealand in 1904, she brought kiwifruit seeds with her. The cultivar ‘Hayward’, a direct descendant of those first seeds, is now the mainstay of kiwifruit industries throughout the world. The kiwifruit is the most successful of all the Chinese plants that Wilson introduced into cultivation.