PLOIDY RACES IN ACTINIDIA-CHINENSIS

Ploidy levels were examined in 26 accessions of Actinidia chinensis: 2 0 accessions were diploid (2n = 2x = 58) and 6 accessions were tetrapl oid (2n = 4x = 116). There was no evidence of variation in ploidy leve l within an accession. Our results are consistent with tetraploid A. c hinensis coming from a restricted part of China. Interploid crosses wi thin A, chinensis produced only low numbers of seedlings which were ma inly triploid. Crossing hexaploid A. deliciosa with pollen of tetraplo id A. chinensis produced a large family of plants and those checked we re pentaploid. Counts on 83 genotypes of different ploidy levels (2x, 3x, 4x, and 5x) confirmed that the basic chromosome number in Actinidi a is 29.