Ba Yue Zha

Akebia trifoliata, three-leaf akebia, is a vigorous deciduous to semi-evergreen woody twining vine of the family Lardizabalaceae native to mountain forest margins and thickets across central and eastern China, Korea and Japan. The slender, glabrous stems climb to 6-10 m and bear long-petiolate, trifoliolate leaves with broadly ovate, shallowly lobed or coarsely toothed leaflets 3-8 cm long. The plant is monoecious, producing pendulous racemes in spring that bear a few large, purple-brown female flowers about 2-3 cm across at the base and numerous smaller pale purple male flowers above, all lacking true petals but with three petaloid sepals. The distinctive fruit is a thick-walled, sausage-shaped, indehiscent to tardily dehiscent berry 6-10 cm long, ripening from green to dull violet-purple in autumn and containing many small black seeds embedded in white, sweet, edible pulp.