Kiwifruit

Many; see text.

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The Kiwifruit or Chinese Gooseberry is the edible fruit of a Cultivar Group of the woody vine Actinidia deliciosa and hybrids between this and other species in the genus Actinidia.

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It is marketed worldwide as kiwifruit but is more commonly called kiwi in North America and in Europe. The most common cultivars of kiwifruit are oval, and about the size of a large hen's egg (5-8 cm long and 4.5-5.5 cm diameter). It has a hairy, dull green-brown skin that most people peel off before consumption. Inside, the flesh is bright green with rows of small, black, edible seeds. The texture of the fruit is soft and the flavour is sometimes described as a mix of strawberry, banana, and pineapple.

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The fruit gets its name from a marketing strategy, naming it after the kiwi, the national bird of New Zealand, where the fruit was first commercially popularised in 1959 by the New Zealand fruit-and-vegetable export company Turners and Growers. Growers gradually adopted the name and in 1974 the kiwifruit became the official trade name.

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In North America and Europe, the "fruit" part of the name is usually dropped, and most people associate "kiwi" with the fruit rather than the bird. This usage can cause some minor confusion and tends to annoy or offend many New Zealanders. To avoid foreigners becoming confused about what a "kiwi" was - a bird, a fruit or a New Zealander - most New Zealand Kiwifruit is now marketed under the brand-name label Zespri which is trademarked by a marketing company domiciled in New Zealand, ZESPRI International.

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Fruit: In botany, a fruit is the ripened ovary, together with its seeds, of a flowering plant. In cuisine, when discussing fruit as food, the term usually refers to just those plant fruits that are sweet and fleshy, examples of which would include plum, apple and orange. However, a great many common vegeta...

Cultivar Group: Under the ICNCP, a cultivar group is a gathering of cultivars. There may be several reasons to designate a group, for example a group of yellow-flowering cultivars, a group of cultivars with variegated leaves, a group of cultivars resistant to a particular disease, etc. A cultivar may belong to more...

Woody: Woody is used :...

Kiwifruit related Images and Photos (experimental)

Kiwi Fruit