The world’s shiniest living thing is an African fruit that looks like a pointillist bauble

Not Exactly Rocket Science
By Ed Yong
Sep 10, 2012 7:00 PMOct 21, 2019 8:50 PM
Pollia_fruit
Pollia_fruit

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In the forests of central Africa, there’s a plant that looks like it’s growing its own Christmas decorations. Shiny baubles sprout from between its leaves, shimmering in a vibrant metallic blue. Look closer, and other colours emerge – pinpricks of red, orange, green and violet. It looks as if Seurat, or some other pointillist painter, had turned their hand to sculpture.

But these spheres, of course, are no man-made creations. They’re fruit. They are the shiniest fruits in the world. Actually, they are the shiniest living materials in the world, full-stop.

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