Skimmia fruit????????

[JohnnyD]

Had this Skimmia for years but never seen anything like this.
Any ideas?
JohnnyD

[Maggi Young]

There's a white  fruited Skimmia japonica called 'Wakehurst White'  and a 'Kew White' too - I wonder if this is one of those?   If you've had it a long time and its only fruiting now, perhaps a neighbour has got a new plant to complete the pollination cycle and some things have "twinned"?? Gotta love those bumble bees. eh?

[JohnnyD]

Thanks Maggi but we have had ample 'normal' bright red fruit for many years and this is the first time we have seen this effect.
One of the white 'fruits' I found had had a quite normal looking skin on it but it has almost entirely fallen away now, and so I tried stripping one of the normal fruits. Lo and behold, the unripe seeds inside are what we have seen. Problem solved,
On the other hand, WHY have the skins fallen off?
J.

[Maggi Young]

That is odd - has something chomped off the skin?

[JohnnyD]

Who knows? There is no evidence of any chompers, and there are a few totally bare seeds on a number of bunches with absolutely no 'half chomped' examples.
it's a mystery.
J.