Golden sunflowers bloom in Chenshan Botanical Garden in Shanghai's Songjiang district. [photo/sheshantravel.com.cn]

The annual flower and fruit exhibition at Chenshan Botanical Garden opened on Sept 30 and will run through Oct 15, presenting visitors with a colorful autumn harvest of golden sunflowers and rich fruit and vegetables.

Visitors to the garden in Shanghai's Songjiang district will be able to see more than twenty varieties of sunflowers, including rare and exotic strains such as aurantium, claret, vermeil, and citrine, in the exhibition's 10,000-square-meter sunflower area.

In the fruit gallery, twenty varieties of exotic fruit climb up bamboo fences, hang from a bamboo porch, or lie on a bamboo pavilion.

The garden will also be holding fruit-picking activities toward the end of the exhibition to allow visitors to experience the joy of the harvest.

In the succulent plants exhibition area, 300 kinds are displayed including many rare varieties introduced from foreign countries, such as the tortoise plant with its massive cork-like tubers. The tortoise plant on show at the exhibition has tubers measuring 40 cm in diameter, which suggests the plant could be decades old.