Chinese Lantern Plant / Large

This peculiar fruit looks exactly like a tiny paper lantern, which explains the name and also why the Japanese have been using them during Bon Festival to help ghosts find their way home—a job I could have used help with after my last family reunion. The root has been treasured in traditional Chinese Medicine for centuries, though I suspect mostly by people who actually knew what they were doing. What makes this large specimen truly remarkable is how the dried fruit's delicate, skeletal veins have been preserved in acrylic resin, frozen in time like some sort of botanical amber. Pair it with a Light Base to illuminate from below, or position it against a dark background and watch it transform into something genuinely beautiful. It's the kind of thing that makes you feel slightly more sophisticated just by owning it.