PlantFiles: Koster's Curse
Clidemia hirta

I first saw this plant growing on my garden. I didn´t know it, thought it was some kind of Tibouchina (which is a common genus of the same family around here) and let it grow. When it bloomed and gave fruits, I was intrigued. I tasted the berries - risking over the information that Melastomataceae is a particularly big family with very little toxic species... which I don´t recomend - and they tasted great! Later, I invented some jam, which looks like ink. The tiny seeds add some "crunciness" in it.

Soapbush, or Koster's Curse is a samll to large shrub, with hairy leaves. The flowers are small and white, concentrated in lateral clusters. The fruits are pruple to dark blue berries, with tiny hairs on the surface. Parts of the flower (the sepals) are present on the fruits top. Each berry carries over a hundred of small seeds that germinate easily in most kinds of soil. It develops well both under full sun or partial shade, though i found it producing better fruits in darker places.

However, I can not give a fully positive feedback about it, because Koster's Curse, as the name sugests, is a violent invasive plant outside of its natural habitat (tropical and subtropical Americas). In Hawaii and Phillipines Islands (where this man called Koster accidentally introduced the plant), it causes a bad ecological problem. Not only it propagates itself easily by seeds (dispersed by birds and people), but it must be unrooted, and the roots must have no contact with the soil until it completely dries. And these shrubs also may grow up to 9 meters tall in such areas. If you live in Hawaii, Phillipines, or any other tropical places outside of continental Americas, avoid it.