Our once-a-week, high-school aged gardener took the weedeater to a grove of Miconia rubiginosa for the first time this past weekend and uncovered this.
I thought they were a particularly bright blue berry of some kind.
Took a few back to the front porch and sliced a couple open.
Hmm. Well, if “berry” means “… any fruit that has its seeds enclosed in a fleshy pulp, for example, a banana or tomato” [my computer’s built-in dictionary definition], then I guess it’s not a berry. No fleshy pulp.
This is going to be fun to sort out.
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- Mystery berries (wcs4.blogspot.com)
An Accidental Botanist 
Something about it says Rubiaceae, and the plant looks like a Geophila, except I’m used to seeing red berries. But I think dark blue/blue fruits may exist. Hope that helps.
Hi Phyto, and thanks! You’re probably right about Rubiaceae – I’m pretty sure some Psychotria species (which this plant probably is not) have this color to their fruits. I’ll follow the Geophila lead, and otherwise keep an open mind for now. 😉
Yes, Psychotria cyanococca has electric blue fruits, but they’re all shrubs I thought.
Plus the leaves are way different. I did find an image of Geophila macropoda with dark blue fruits here. The leaves are closer, anyway, to mine. My next step is to pull out the Rubiaceae volumes from Flora of Panama and roll up those sleeves.
Found something very similar during a trip to Trinidad before Christmas. How about the fruit of the Hot Lips plant, Cephaelis tomentosa? And it’s from the Ribiaceae.
Hello Audrey and Gwyn,
Yes, I agree, that the fruit looks a little like the fruit from Cephaelis tomentosa (aka Psychotria poeppigiana) but this plant is a ground-hugger and hot-lips is a pretty big shrub here in Panama. Still, I think your observation helps support the idea that this plant is in the Rubiaceae or coffee family.
Thank you for your note!
the blue fruits are the fruits of the rubiaceae Coccosypselum spec.
Thank you, Dr. Meyer. Using your information, I was able to locate several images of the genus on Flickr. It’s satisfying to have a name.