A Novel Ornamental and Pollination Dual-Purpose Actinidia eriantha Male Cultivar

Actinidia eriantha is an endemic kiwifruit species in China with high nutritional value and breeding potential. As a typical dioecious fruit tree, most currently bred cultivars are female, while the development of male pollinizer cultivars remains insufficiently studied and reported. Through long-term collection and evaluation of wild germplasm resources, our research team bred a male cultivar ‘Ganxiong 1’ with both ornamental and pollination value. In this study, the phenological traits, floral characteristics, major biological traits, ploidy levels, and genetic diversity of ‘Ganxiong 1’ were systematically analyzed and compared with those of the commonly used pollinizer ‘Moshan 4’. The results showed that ‘Ganxiong 1’ exhibited stable genetic traits, with branch bleeding occurring in late February and flowering in early May, highly overlapping with the flowering period of most female A. eriantha cultivars. It produced bright red flowers arranged in false dichasial cymes, showing high ornamental value. The average number of anthers per flower was 140.24, and the number of pollen grains per anther reached 8.57 × 104, with a pollen viability of 97.64% and a pollen tube length of 127.25 μm, indicating strong pollination potential. Ploidy and SSR analyses revealed that ‘Ganxiong 1’ is a diploid cultivar and is genetically distinct from previously reported A. eriantha cultivars at the DNA level. Regarding pollination effects, the fruit set rate, single fruit weight, seed number, SSC, and AsA content of ‘Ganlv 1’ fruits pollinated with ‘Ganxiong 1’ were significantly higher than those pollinated with ‘Moshan 4’, while the TA content was significantly lower than that of ‘Moshan 4’ pollination. In conclusion, ‘Ganxiong 1’ exhibits high stability and distinctiveness in phenological, morphological, cytological, and genetic characteristics. It can be considered a new ornamental and pollination dual-purpose cultivar of A. eriantha and provides an important parental resource for kiwifruit breeding programs.