Photo time - berries

You'd think that identifying plants by their different coloured berries would be easy but I've pored over a number of books and still can't make up my mind on some of them. It shows me how much I still have to learn about the diversity of our native ngahere (forest).

I know this one! Fruit of tātarāmoa, Rubus cissoides, bush lawyer

Possibly one of the Coprosma family

Beautiful Nertera ground cover. I need to crush one of the berries - if it is
unpleasant smelling then it's Nertera depressa; if it doesn't smell then
it's Nertera cunninghamii

Another Coprosma

Weeping māpou, Myrsine divaricata

Masses of berries on this Myrsine divaricata

Paler variant of Myrsine divaricate. Hugh Wilson's book, 'Field Guide
Stewart Island Plants' states that the fruits 'are berry-like, bright purple,
sometimes paler and rarely white'

Nohi, Luzuriaga parviflora, Lantern berry

I'm hoping to do a Plant Identification course in early July which will make it easier to understand the terminology used - as you can see from the following description of Lantern berry, there's a lot more to it than you'd think:

Description of Luzuriaga parviflora (Hook.f.) Kunth (1850)
Wiry, low-growing, semi-herbaceous perennial. Stem creeping at base, occ. 50 cm. long; internodes 2–4–(6) cm. long; nodes with scarious scales and short roots, giving off arcuate aerial branching twigs 4–25 cm. long; lower nodes of each branch with a brown scale in place of a lf, the lowest scale us. shortly tubular; new branches arising mostly in axils of these scales, rarely from axils of green lvs. Stem 4-angled, c. 1 mm. diam., the lvs alternate and distichous in zigzag pattern; each twig of limited growth with 4–12 green lvs, at intervals of 4–10–(20) mm., the uppermost internode so short that the last 2 lvs appear opp. Lvs 7–27 × 3–6–(10) mm., ± oblong, very shortly apiculate; margin entire; petiole very short and twisted so that the smooth, green, slightly keeled abaxial surface faces up to the light (resupinate); adaxial surface ± concave, the spaces between the main nerves notably pale and less smooth; 1–2 nerves on each side of midrib connected by several irregular, ± obvious transverse veins. Fls solitary and terminal between paired uppermost lvs; occ. 1 or 2 of next lower lvs also subtending fls. Fl.-bud, protected by c. 3 scale lvs, rests all winter before the pedicel elongates to 3–5 mm., and fl. develops and opens. Per. nodding; tepals c. 8–18 mm. long, opaque white; outer tepals c. 3 mm. wide with one mid-vein giving off side branches; inner tepals slightly wider, with band of 3 main veins, the mid-vein unbranched. Stamens much <tepals; filaments barely = ovary, little flattened, narrowed above; anther dorsifixed just below middle, versatile but mostly standing erect. Ovary 2.5 mm. long; style 2.5 mm.; ovules 2–3 per locule. Fr. c. 1 cm. diam., sub-globose, shortly apiculate, white, fleshy. Seeds c. 2.5 × 2 mm., pale, very hard. 2n = 20.
[From: Moore and Edgar (1970) Flora of New Zealand. Volume 2.]



Not quite berries - I'm very proud of the tomato crop I grew from seed!
I'll start them much earlier next Spring as they ran out of sunshine
this year but I'm still thrilled that I got any red ones.