Five-Seeded Plume-Poppy (Macleaya Cordata) タケニグサ（竹似草）

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The five-seeded plume-poppy (Macleaya cordata) is native to China, Taiwan, and Japan and can be found across Japan. Its Japanese name is "takeni gusa," which translates into "plant similar to bamboo," after it having hollow stems like bamboos. 

The plant shows its beauty in various ways. Spindle shaped white things (scroll down) are buds. Things that look like sparklers are flowers, which contain beautiful thread shaped white stamens and orange pistils (scroll down). Its brown capsules are also beautiful. 

2026/7/1

Lysimachia Clethroides (Gooseneck Loosestrife) 丘虎の尾（オカトラノオ）

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The gooseneck loosestrife (Lysimachia clethroides) is native to east Asia and can be found across Japan, producing white flowers from June to August. It's edible and used to be eaten in Japan as a famine plant (although it tastes bitter and astringent). The plant's Japanese name is "Okatora no o," which translates into "tiger tail growing on hills," after its flower spikes looking like tiger tails.  

2026/7/1

2026/6/30

Hydrangea Serrata Var. Yesoensis F. Cuspidata Cv. 四季咲き姫紫陽花（シキザキヒメアジサイ）

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These are Hydrangea serrata var. yesoensis f. cuspidata cv., a type of mountain hydrangea. Their Japanese name is "shikizaki hime ajisai," which translates into "hydrangea blooming all year round." As the name suggests, the hydrangeas bloom for a longer period, i.e., the six months from June to December (not throughout the year though). Another feature is that the blooms change color at different pace one by one, resulting in various shades of pink, blue and purple. 

Their blue and purple color is beautiful but their bluish, pinkish, and purplish sepia gradients evoke a sense of nostalgic beauty. (Scroll down!)

Below are the shots of various hydrangeas. Hope you enjoy them, too!

Hydrangea macrophylla 'Ayesha' (Popcorn hydrangea)

Hydrangea changing from pale green to white then to pale blue
Hydrangea blooming all year round (Hydrangea serrata var. yesoensis f. cuspidata cv.)

Purple and pink lacecap hydrangeas

Various lacecap hydrangeas

Pink mophead hydrangea

Kurenai lacecap hydrangea (Hydrangea serrata var. 'Kurenai')

Oakleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia)

Tea of heaven 'Mikata-yae' (blue Hydrangea serrata)

Nettle-leaved hydrangea (Hydrangea hirta)

White and whitish hydrangea

Annabelle hydrangea (Hydrangea arborescens 'Annabelle')

2023/5/28

2023/5/28

Asian Swallowtail (Papilio Xuthus) ナミアゲハ（並揚羽）

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The Asian swallowtail (Papilio xuthus) is found in Asia, Siberia and the Hawaiian Islands and can be found across Japan. Its female is known to have clearer blue areas in black bands on their hindwings, so most of those in these photos may be female. 

Butterflies usually close their wings when resting but are also known to open their wings to bask in the sun to warm their bodies, which gave me the moment to take these photos. 

2026/6/30

Antilles Mottlegill (Panaeolus Antillarum) ツヤマグソタケ（艶馬糞茸）

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It was great fun finding mushrooms that hadn't existed a few days earlier. They've just popped up for the past couple of days, during which it rained heavily due to a typhoon. Google Lens identifies them as antilles mottlegill (Panaeolus antillarum) but I'm not sure. 

Many mushrooms are safe to touch and eat (and tasty!) but some are not. In Japan, 30 to 70 people are treated for mushroom poisoning every year. The Japanese ministry of agriculture, forestry, and fishery has a website on 10 most typical poisonous mushrooms in Japan (in Japanese only).   

2026/6/30

East Asian Mallotus (Mallotus Japonicus) アカメガシワ（赤芽柏）

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East Asian mallotus (Mallotus japonicus) is native to East Asia and can be found across Japan. The tree is dioecious, producing male and female flowers on separate trees from June to July. The trees in this post are all female with female flowers, producing clusters of fruits and seeds (scroll down) in two months. The three to four branched red parts of the female flowers are stigmas.

2026/6/29

Buckwheat (Fagopyrum Esculentum) ソバ（蕎麦）

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The buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) is native to southwestern China and grown in Hokkaido and other prefectures in Japan but it's unusual for it to grow on the sidewalk like this. The plant produces white and pink flowers twice a year in Japan, i.e., summer buckwheat, which flower from late June to early July, and autumn buckwheat, which flower from early September to mid-October. Those in these photos should be summer buckwheat.

Many tourists come to Japan to eat tempura, sushi, ramen, wagyu, etc., but when you want to give your stomach a break, I would recommend a soba noodle. When your stomach doesn't need a break, you can of course enjoy having a soba noodle with tempura on it (i.e., tempura soba) or a soba noodle together with oyako don (chicken and egg rice bowl) or katsu don (Japanese pork cutlet and egg rice bowl), both of which you should generally be able to have at most soba noodle restaurants. 

2026/6/28

Japanese Spirea (Spiraea Japonica) シモツケ（下野）

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The Japanese spirea (Spiraea japonica) is native to China, Korea, and Japan and can be found across Japan, producing pink flowers with a beautiful gradient from pale to bright pink from May to August. The plant is named "shimotsuke" in Japanese after the Shimotsuke province or the current Tochigi prefecture where the plant was found for the first time in Japan. Its autumn leaves are also beautiful (scroll down)!

2026/6/28

Dendropanax Trifidus 隠れ蓑（カクレミノ）

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The Dendropanax trifidus is native to east Asia and can be found across Japan. The tree produces male and hermaphrodite flowers from June to July and then fruits, which turn black purple in late autumn. 

Its Japanese name is "kakuremino," which translates into "invisibility cloak," after the leaf looking like Tengu's magic cloak, which makes the wearer invisible like Harry Potter's invisibility cloak. Tengu are a type of mischievous yokai (supernatural beings) appearing in Japanese folklore. Imagining Harry Potter wearing Tengu's cloak made me chuckle😆.

The Dendropanax trifidus leaves change generally from a lobed to an ovate shape but some aren't lobed or ovate, which makes it difficult to identify the tree.  

2026/6/27

2023/7/21

Lespedeza (Bush Clovers) 萩（ハギ）

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The bush clover is native to east Asia and can be found across Japan. It's known as an autumn plant in Japan and its Japanese name "hagi" is a kigo or a seasonal word or phrase associated with a particular season used in traditional forms of Japanese poetry for autumn, but bush clovers actually flower from July to September and I once found a tree flowering in December (scroll down).

Bush clovers are known to produce pink flowers but they also have white flowers (Lespedeza buergeri) and some (Lespedeza  japonica bailey cv. versicolor) produce pink and white flowers on the same tree. 

2026/6/27

Broadleaf Plantain (Plantago Major) セイヨウオオバコ（西洋大葉子）

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The broadleaf plantain (Plantago major) is native to Eurasia while the Chinese plantain (Plantago asiatica) is native to east Asia and both can now be found across Japan. The former is larger than the latter but otherwise they resemble each other very much, so I can't tell which those in these photos are. The Plantago major flowers in summer and the Plantago asiatica from April to September in Japan. When I took these pictures, most had no flowers but I found one with many tiny cream flowers drooping after rain. 

  

2026/6/26