Copperleaf

This short shrub grows up to 1 foot (30.5 cm) tall and lives for decades, with the oldest known specimen being around 175 years old. It is not very resistant to disease and destructive insect infestation.

It has dozens of narrow, straight stems covered in paper-thin, knobbly, burgundy bark, and the wood inside is pine-coloured.

The branches trail down across the ground that and are covered with large amounts of large, wide, leaves with smooth edges. The leaves themselves are copper at the bottom and brilliant red with silver patches at the top, light and frail and fuzzy.

In mid-summer it produces dozens of large, pink blossoms with many layers of petals. They are very delicate and have a mildly strong scent that smells like something putrid.

In early autumn large oval fruits ripen. The rubbery copper skin is thin and inedible, and the slightly crunchy red flesh is bitter and sour and very juicy. The yellow seed is tiny and sits at the end of the fruit.