Copperleaf

This average-sized shrub grows up to 4 feet (1.2 meters) tall and lives for around 92 years. It is not very resistant to disease and destructive insect infestation.

It has numerous very thick, crooked stems covered in delicate, smooth, mahogany-coloured bark, and the wood inside is copper-coloured.

The branches are very long, thin and wispy with dozens of twigs that and are covered with sparse amounts of huge, very narrow and elongated, leaves with irregular edges. The leaves themselves are aquamarine and gold, frail and waxy.

In early spring it produces dozens of medium-sized, gold blossoms with cylindrical shaped petals. They are hardy and have a powerful scent that smells like damp.

In mid-autumn small oval fruits ripen. The leathery amber skin is thick and inedible, and the soft lime flesh is sweet and spicy and dry. The red seed is tiny and sits at the end of the fruit.