Plants and Flowers in Tokyo & Japanese Culture by Kei Narujima　東京の草花＆つぶやき

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

英語の後に日本語が続きます。

This is five-seeded plume-poppy (Macleaya cordata). The plant 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 (like the one in the center of the 1st photo) are buds. Things that look like sparkers are flowers, which contain beautiful thread shaped white stamens and orange pistils. Its brown capsules (4th photo) are also beautiful.

2025/7/13
Thread shaped white things are stamens and orange things behind them are pistils.
白い糸状のものが雄蕊でオレンジが雌蕊

2021/6/16 - Pistils (ovaries)　雌蕊（子房）

2025/7/13

2025/7/13 - Capsules　蒴果

Crepe Myrtle (Lagerstroemia Indica)　サルスベリ（百日紅）

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Crepe myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica) is native to China, coming to Japan before the Edo period (1603 - 1867) and can be found across Japan now. The tree produces flowers in various colors, white, pink, and red. Its leaves turn orange and red beautifully in autumn and the dark brown fruits are also beautiful.

The crepe myrtle has two names in Japan, "saru suberi," which translates to "monkeys slip" because of its slippery bark, on which even monkeys (are said to) slip, and "hyaku jitsu ko," which translates to "red for one hundred days," after that the crepe myrtle flowers bloom for a long period of time.

According to Flower Meanings, the crepe myrtle flower means;
- Prosperity;
- Good luck;
- Chastity;
- Good luck in love and marriage; and
- Marital fidelity.

But here in Japan, it means:

- Eloquence;
- Charm and;
- Carelessness.

2022/8/1

2020/7/5

2021/7/24

Popcorn Hydrangea (Hydrangea Macrophylla Ayesha)　ウズアジサイ（渦紫陽花）

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They're one of my favorite hydrangeas, popcorn hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla Ayesha). Needless to say, the hydrangea is named after the shape of its sepals, which resembles that of popcorns.

2025/7/11

2024/6/4

Camellia Fruits (Camellia Japonica and Camellia Sasanqua)　椿と山茶花の実

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Camellia trees in my neighborhood have started fruit and one of the differences between the Camellia japonica and the Camellia sasanqua is the fruit.

Japanese people love Camellia so much that they talk a lot about how to distinguish between "japonica" and "sasanqua." One way to tell is to look at the size and skin of their fruits. Also, a Camellia japonica fruit is bigger (i.e., about 5 cm in diameter) with a glossy skin while a Camellia sasanqua one is about 3 cm and hairy.

The seeds of both Camellia fruits can produce oil (i.e., tea seed oil), which has been used for skin and hair in Japan for a long time. How long? The Shoku Nihongi, i.e., an imperially-commissioned Japanese history text, says that Japan gave the oil to an ambassador sent from Balhae, a multi-ethnic kingdom in Manchuria, the Korean Peninsula and the Russian Far East, in 777. Wow!

Camellia japonica and sasanqua are both the prefectural/city/town flower of many prefectures and municipalities in Japan, and the Camellia japonica is surprisingly the Alabama state flower.

If you're interested in another (easy!) way to tell the Camellia japonica from the Camellia sasanqua, read THIS post, too!!

2025/7/10 Camellia japonica

2021/8/5 Camellia JAPONICA, no hair, 5 cm in diameter
椿の実はツルツルで直径5センチ

Tall Stewartia (Stewartia Monadelpha)　ヒメシャラ（姫沙羅）

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Tall stewartia (Stewartia monadelpha) is native to Japan and can be found in the Kanagawa prefecture (next to Tokyo) and the southern areas. The plant is in the Theaceae family, the same as Japanese camellia. You can see the resemblance of the flowers to camellias. Tall stewartia produces flowers from May to August and fruits generally from October to November but a tree in my neighborhood fruited in August last year and has started to fruit since July this year. And that's not the end. After turning brown, the fruits crack, which look like a crow screaming! (Scroll down! That's funny.)

2025/5/31

2025/7/10

Virginia Pepperweed (Lepidium Virginicum) 　マメグンバイナズナ（豆軍配薺）

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Virginia pepperweed or least pepperwort (Lepidium virginicum) is native to North America and its existence was first confirmed in Japan in the Meiji era (1868 - 1912). Virginia pepperweed resembles shepherd's purses (Capsella bursa-pastoris) very much, but while the fruits of shepherd's purse are triangle shaped, Virginia pepperweed's fruit shape is rounder, resembling that of small "gunbai," a type of Japanese war fan. Gunbai were once held by samurai leaders and priests but now used by (only) umpires in sumo wrestling. The gunbai shape is that of the fruits in the 1st photo.

2025/7/9

Pale Grass Blue (Pseudozizeeria Maha)　大和小灰蝶（ヤマトシジミ）

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A pale grass blue butterfly (Pseudozizeeria maha) is plain at a glance (3rd photo) but you would be surprised when seeing the upper side of a male one, which is beautiful pale blue as its name suggests. Butterflies are known to open their wings to bask in the sun to warm their bodies, so you're more likely to see the beautiful blue in autumn than summer.

The pale grass blue resembles the plains cupid (Luthrodes pandava) very much except for the latter having orange spots on the wings. I once mistook a plains cupid for a pale grass blue.

2024/11/5

2022/11/9

2025/6/29

Early Amethyst (Callicarpa Dichotoma)　コムラサキ（小紫）

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Early amethyst (Callicarpa dichotoma) is native to Asia and can be found across Japan. It produces tiny pale pink flowers in clusters from July to August and tiny drupes also in clusters from September to November. The fruits are green at first and then turn purple. (Scroll down!!) Its Japanese name is "komurasaki," which translates to "small East Asian beautyberry" because the two resemble each other but the former (i.e., early amethyst) is smaller than the latter.

Their Japanese names both contain "muraski," which means purple and Murasaki Shikibu or Lady Purple. Lady Purple is a Japanese novelist, poet and court lady at the Imperial court in the Heian period (794 - 118), known as the author of The Tale of Genji, which is often said to be the world's oldest long novel.

2025/6/20

Swallowtail Butterfly　アゲハ蝶

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I know there are various types of swallowtail butterflies but I don't know what these two are. The butterfly in the first three photos has orange spots while that in the last two photos (taken two years ago) has blue and orange spots. I caught many butterflies when I was a child but didn't appreciate their beauty at that time. What a shame...

2025/7/7

Johnson Grass (Sorghum Halepense)　セイバンモロコシ（西播蜀黍）

英語の後に日本語が続きます。

Johnson grass or Johnsongrass (Sorghum halepense) is native to Asia and northern Africa, coming to, or (as an invasive species) invading, Japan in around 1945. Now, the weed can be found across Japan but Hokkaido, i.e., the northernmost part of Japan. I looked up the origin of the name, finding that the plant was named after an Alabama plantation owner, Colonel William Johnson, who introduced the plant to his farm in around 1840 as a prospective forage. Johnsongrass, however, has been found to become poisonous under stress (e.g., frost) and be toxic to livestock.

Despite such hardiness and toxicity, however, Johnsongrass produces tiny and cute flowers.

2026/6/29

2025/6/26

Skunkvine (Paederia Foetida)　屁糞葛（ヘクソカズラ）

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Skunkvine (Paederia foetida) is native to Asia and can be found across Japan. The perception of the plant in Japan is it's smelly (as in other countries), so its Japanese name is "hé kuso kazura," which translates to "fart shxx vine." The plant is also so hardy that it was sung in a waka poem by an Imperial Court official in the Nara period (710-794), who wished to work hardily like the plant, and the poem is included in The Manyōshū, i.e., the oldest extant collection of Japanese waka poetry compiled during that period.

Despite such a terrible name and the smell, however, the flower's glossy red center always reminds me of jam thumbprint cookies.

2025/7/4

2025/6/29

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