I LOVE THE ANTARTIC REALM OF PLANTS. ITS MY ROMAN EMPIRE. THEY ARE ALL SO STRANGE AND BEAUTIFUL My favorite part of Chile and why I miss it so much were the PLANTS. I LOVE the valdivian temperate rainforest flora. WHAT DO YOU MEAN THIS OAK IS A CONIFER kinda deal (Nothofagus obliqua). The PINES HAVE PLUMS ON THEM (Plumnopytis andina) I remember scaling a mountain there and getting to the top, and the nothofagus small tree had a astonishing parasitic orchid looking bird of paradise alien fruit thing ON it that is extremely toxic and hallucinogenic called devil's trumpet. FLOWERING. THEY HAVE A TEMPERATE COCONUT (Jubaea chilensis). It is a palm with very small coconuts. Ive cracked one open and ate it because I did not believe it. And nobody is eating the fruits themselves. IT IS all so alien. They have "not willows" with edible berries (Amomyrtus luma, Aristotelia chilensis), and a forest full of fruits as a max canopy dominant species related to NOTHING in Chiloé, that are nearly the size of a mango, and are apparently delicious, and NOBODY IS EATING THEM OR KNOWS WHAT THEY ARE. They fall down en masse and are a megafaunal remnant. (Gomortega keule) They have an analog to EVERY SINGLE TEMPERATE FRUIT that we consider normal botanically. It is NUTS. Talking about nuts, they have a species of NOT almond!! (Gevuina avellana) This is all without mentioning araucarias ofc those are the tip of the iceberg. People compare them to pines but I think in niche they are closer to Larch. Also there is a vine there that mimics the leaf shape of plants around it for camouflage. It is unknown how it does that, because the plant does not even need to have a root connection. See it for yourself: chileflora.com/Florachilena/… I have a document with plants from there to never forget Same with New Zealand, it shares the antartic realm of plants If there is such a thing as long lost antartic or "atlantean" cuisine, it was fucking alien