NATURE IN SHORT / Akebi vines a boon to medicine, but don't forget to slurp ...

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At this stage in the season, the traditional Asian lunar and solar reckonings, as well as the ancient Celtic calendar, are almost perfectly in line. The new moon that will occur this coming Saturday will be the 10th in the lunar calendar, and the first moon of winter; while the following day, Sunday, will mark the ritto, or start of winter, in the sekki reckoning, which divides the year into 24 segments based on the angle of the sun. In the traditional Celtic almanac, winter would have just gotten under way this past Sunday on Samhain, or Halloween.

This weekend we neo-Celtojaponic druids will be keeping a keen eye on the western sky at sunset. On Sunday, beautiful Selene, in the ultrathin sliver of her wispy second night gown, will make a very brief appearance low in the western sky just after the sun drops away. Seen from central Tokyo, old Helios himself will be disappearing about 20 degrees south of due west, which will put him right smack behind Mt. Fuji. Even if Fuji is not at first visible on the horizon, its gorgeous silhouette will show up when backlit by Helios' powerful rays.

Ironically, this coming Tuesday, Nov. 9, also marks the anniversary day when Japan formally adopted the solar calendar in 1872. Unfortunately, very few people today bother to follow the koyomi, as the traditional seasonal reckonings are called.

In the greater Tokyo area, however, all these predictions of winter are yet to have much effect on the actual seasonal rhythms of the natural world. Here Old Man Winter and his whistling-wind sidekick Jack Frost have not even begun their work. Some of the earliest trees to turn color, such as the ginkgos, are showing slight tints of yellowish-green, but most of the oaks and other woodland trees are still conducting their photosynthesis business as usual.

Autumn fruits and flowers are also still going strong. Walking down a narrow country road that follows the edge of a woodland, I scan the branches above for small oblong podlike fruits, about 10-centimeter-long and purple in color. This is the akebi, a tough, fast-growing vine that starts off on the forest floor but eventually climbs high into the trees, gaining access to the abundant sunlight that strikes the edge of the wood.

There are actually two species of akebi, called akebia, or sometimes chocolate vine for the smell of the flowers in English, growing wild in the Kanto area. These can easily be told apart by the number of leaflets in the compound leaf. The akebi (five-leaf akebia A. trifoliate) has only three. There are also an ornamental variety with white flowers, and a naturally occurring but sterile hybrid (A. x pentaphylla).

The akebi pods are green at first, but as they ripen they begin to take on their distinctive beautiful pinkish-purple sheen. When fully ripe the pods split open lengthwise, revealing several rows of black seeds embedded in a soft, translucent gelatinous pulp. This pulp is a sweet delicacy, but is a bit difficult to consume. The only recourse is to slurp up the entire gelatinous blob, then spit the seeds out.

The rind of the akebia fruit is also edible, and has long been a popular food in the Tohoku region. Once the pulp has been removed, the thick rinds are dried and preserved, then late packed with ground beef, sliced vegetables and maitake mushrooms. This dish is especially popular during the New Year season. The rinds can also be sliced and pan-fried with vegetables or deep-fried as tempura. In the past, the young spring shoots were considered to be edible greens, and the seeds were an important local source of vegetable oil.

These days, both traditional and modern akebia dishes are enjoying a mini-boom in popularity, and the pods occasionally even make their way into pricey big-city supermarkets. Farmers in the Tohoku region have started to grow the pods commercially, but still on a minor scale.

The thinner outer vines of the akebia are used in traditional basket weaving, and slices of the thicker central vine of both species are stocked in traditional herbal drugstores as mokutsu. Medicines containing mokutsu are prescribed as a diuretic, and also to regulate gastric excretions, improve blood circulation, and relieve hip and joint pain. The pods are also said to help eliminate facial swelling.

Despite all these beneficial uses, akebia vine is a highly aggressive plant that can be a nuisance to gardeners. In New Zealand, as well as in several eastern U.S. states, akebia has escaped from cultivation and is now designated as an ecologically disruptive alien species.

Akebia are classified in the Lardizabalaceae, an obscure family with only a few dozen species worldwide. Also in this family is the stauntonia vine, or mube (Stauntonia hexaphylla), with five-leaflet compound leaves and edible pods that look similar to those of the akebia, but do not split open when ripe.

Pink and red akebia flowers bloom is late spring, but are small and inconspicuous. Each vine bears separate male and female flowers in a cluster that arises from the leaf joints. The male flowers are bunched toward the tip of the cluster, with the female flowers at the base. Akebia vines do not self-pollinate.

I usually feel OK slurping up some sweet akebia pulp from vines I find growing along isolated forest tracks. Those in hedges or groves surrounding farmsteads, however, I always leave for the occupants.

Short is a naturalist and cultural anthropology professor at Tokyo University of Information Sciences.

Additional information:

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