The genus Actinidia is native to China and is comprised of more than 50 species. Actinidia chinensis Planch and Actinidia deliciosa (A. Chev). C.F. Liang and A.R. Ferguson are the two most important commercial Actinidia species. Actinidia chinensis is more precocious and productive and the fruit are more attractive in appearance with less pubescence on the fruit skin than A. deliciosa. 
Kiwifruit plants are dioecious and have vegetative and compound buds with flower clusters produced in the leaf axils of the first four to six nodes of shoots arising from buds on one year old shoots. Male and female flowers are perfect morphologically. The female flower contains some anthers, but only the stigma is functional, whereas the flower on a male vine typically produces 125-185 large anthers that surround a small vestigial stigma. For pollination and fruit set to occur, the female plant must be in close proximity of a male plant whose bloom period occurs at the same time as the female plant's bloom period.
‘AU Gulf Coast Gold’ is a new golden-fleshed cultivar of Actinidia chinensis Planch. It is a bud mutation that occurred on a ‘AU Golden Sunshine’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 22,159) plant in a cultivated and maintained orchard to evaluate kiwifruit cultivar performance at Fairhope, Baldwin County, Ala. Based on the genetic marker comparison of ‘AU Golden Sunshine’ (patented) and ‘AU Gulf Coast Gold’, the genetic distinction between these two cultivars is strong (Table 1). Wood from this plant was grafted onto Actinidia deliciosa kiwifruit plants at Clanton, Chilton County, Ala., where it has been grown and evaluated since 1999. ‘AU Gulf Coast Gold’ has been asexually reproduced at Auburn, Clanton and Reeltown, Ala. and Marysville and Reedly, Calif., USA by rooting softwood and hardwood cuttings, by whip and cleft grafting and tissue culture. Genetics have been stable through succeeding asexual propagation.
‘AU Gulf Coast Gold’ fruit is large, cylindrical and uniform in shape with golden flesh that has a thick sweet flavor and delicious taste. ‘AU Gulf Coast Gold’ fruit has high percent soluble solids and dry matter typically higher than ‘AU Golden Sunshine’ (patented) and comparable to slightly lower than ‘Hort 16A’ A. chinensis (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 11,066) (Table 2). Dry matter content, a positively correlated indicator of soluble solids content of kiwifruit when allowed to ripen, appears to be closely related to fruit development period, and ‘AU Gulf Coast Gold’ has a longer fruit development period compared to ‘AU Golden Sunshine’ (patented) and a shorter fruit development period compared to ‘Hort 16A’ (patented). Increasing dry matter content has been shown to increase purchase likelihood for kiwifruit (Jaeger et al., 2011). ‘AU Gulf Coast Gold’ bloom period begins 1-2 days before ‘AU Golden Sunshine’ (patented), and is completed 2 days before ‘AU Golden Sunshine’ (patented) bloom period (Table 3).
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