The World’s Shiniest Fruit Looks Absolutely Unreal
Quick, word association: Shiny. Go.
Gold? Easily distracted birds? Firefly-era slang? Fruit?
If you said that last one, you’re either confused about what the word “shiny” means, or you’ve seen pictures of Pollia condensata. This remarkable specimen is not only the world’s shiniest fruit but also the world’s shiniest living thing. Not that anyone’s keeping track.
This blue bunch of African berries took the iridescence generally limited to butterflies and beetles and made it better. Basically, the berry’s got layers of fibrous flesh artfully arranged to create the most bang for its buck. In other words, what the bugs and birds do, these blueberry things do it best. Also, this paragraph was brought to you by the letter B.
Apparently, though, the color is there only for, like, scientific means. P. condensata is all about self-preservation, so by being sexy, it tricks birds and other animals into eating and pollinating it and all that tricky stuff. Sadly, you won’t get much from this berry in terms of food.
Not so sadly, Grist knows what’s up:
But so what if the fruits are bright and shiny and gorgeous and have no substance? So’s Carly Rae Jepsen, and have you stopped singing her song even once this summer? You have not.
