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Pollia condensata berries can keep an iridescent appearance for decades because their colour comes from the way their cells are built, not from pigment that fades. A 2012 Chemistry World report described a 38-year-old Ghanaian specimen held at Kew Gardens that still showed iridescence. That example demonstrates long-lasting colour in one specimen—not a guaranteed lifespan for every berry.
Why the berries shimmer without pigment
The colour of Pollia condensata berries is structural: it is produced by the arrangement of material inside their cells rather than by conventional colour-producing pigment. Their surface can look strikingly iridescent and varied, even though the effect comes from physical structure.
That distinction matters for understanding the reported longevity. The colour is tied to the berry’s cellular architecture, so the 2012 account does not describe a pigment retaining its hue for decades.
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In its 2012 report, Chemistry World attributed the effect to layers of cellulose fibrils arranged in helical stacks. Each layer sits at a slight angle to the one beneath it. The layered structure interacts with circularly polarised light, creating the berry’s colour.
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Cell-to-cell differences help explain why the colour is not uniform: variations in layer thickness produce different colours across the berry, giving it a dappled appearance. The report says Ullrich Steiner and a University of Cambridge team investigated the structure using transmission electron microscopy.
What the 38-year-old specimen shows
The evidence highlighted by the report is a fruit specimen collected in Ghana and held at Kew Gardens. Researchers analysed it when it was 38 years old and found that it still displayed iridescence. This is a documented example of structural colour persisting in an aged specimen.
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It does not establish how long every Pollia condensata berry will retain its appearance. The report gives no controlled comparison of storage conditions or universal lifespan, so the result should be understood as evidence about that specimen, not a prediction for all fruit.
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Chemistry World called the berries the “brightest biological material ever discovered,” but the retrieved report text gives no numerical reflectance measurement. Treat that as the report’s attributed description rather than a quantified comparison. Its reference list points to a 2012 paper by S. Vignolini and colleagues in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI 10.1073/pnas.1210105109. The technical details here are limited to what the report states.
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