Chocolate Vine

Akebia quinata

Also known as Five-Leaf Akebia, Akebi, Mu Tong (traditional Chinese name for the dried stem)

At a glance

Family

Lardizabalaceae (the Akebia family, alongside Decaisnea and Holboellia)

Type

Woody, twining deciduous to semi-evergreen vine

Parts used

Ripe fruit pulp, young leaves and shoots, dried stem (traditional)

Size

A vigorous climber reaching 15 to 40 feet along fences, arbors, and trees

Bloom

Early to mid spring, clusters of small chocolate-scented maroon and lilac flowers

Habitat

Woodland edges and thickets of Japan, Korea, and China, now widely grown and naturalized in mild-climate gardens

Acquisition

Grow or buy

This plant in HerbSense

Key benefits

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Fragrant spring flowers

Fast, dense privacy screen

Unusual edible autumn fruit

Traditional mild diuretic use

Traditional uses

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Chocolate vine has long been welcomed into East Asian gardens more for its beauty and generosity than for medicine. In Japan, children have gathered its pale purple, sausage-shaped pods for generations, splitting them open to eat the sweet, translucent pulp inside, seeds and all, much like a wild candy of the woods. In traditional Chinese medicine, the dried stem was known as Mu Tong and was steeped into decoctions thought to promote urination and clear heat from the body. The young leaves have also been dried for a light, mild tea in folk practice. Because the fruit rarely sets in cultivation without a compatible pollinator nearby, a ripe pod has always felt a bit like a small woodland reward.

How to grow & use it

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Traditional remedies and step-by-step preparations, a complete growing guide, and how to harvest, dry, and store it, all unlocked with HerbLens Unlimited.

✦Remedies & preparations
✦ Growing guide
✦Harvest & storage

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Pairs well with

✦Jasmine
✦Chrysanthemum
✦Honeysuckle

Substitutes

✦Passionfruit (for the fruit pulp texture and flavor)
✦Holboellia (a close botanical relative with similar sweet pods)

Choose it when

“When you want a vine that scents the spring air like cocoa, then hands you a strange, sweet little pod come autumn.”

Did you know?

The vine's small spring flowers genuinely smell like chocolate and vanilla, a fragrance so distinctive that gardeners who plant it near a porch or window often notice it before they ever see the blooms tucked among the leaves.

Safety

Chocolate Vine's fruit pulp and young leaves are safe in the traditional, modest amounts described here. Dried Akebia stem, sold in herbal markets as Mu Tong, has historically been mixed up with a toxic Aristolochia vine that caused serious kidney damage, so stem preparations should only come from a tested, reputable source if used at all. Because of its diuretic effects, avoid concentrated preparations if you have kidney issues, take diuretics, or are pregnant or breastfeeding.