We were recently tidying up winter sticks and rubbish in the Chilean part of the garden when I noticed these two plants with stunning orange fruits. The first image is Luzuriaga radicans which loves to creep around in shady places on the ground but really excels when given a tree fern to climb or this soft redwood bark. It has reached a couple of metres in various places and the fruits are fairly persistant giving a good show into the winter. It really needs to climb to show off its attractive starry white flowers and subsequent fruits.

The second image is Myrceugenia chrysocarpa which was collected by Peter Cox in Chile. This genus belongs to the Myrtaceae so presumably the fruits are edible, (I haven’t tried) but maybe they don’t taste very sweet as there are still plenty on the small 2m bush right through the winter again, the birds haven’t touched them. Both fruits are remarkably similar in colour which is curious, maybe there is an animal in South America that spots these from a long way off and aids the seed dispersal?