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

Winter Daphne (Daphne Odora)　沈丁花

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Winter daphne (Daphne odora) is native to China but can be found across Japan. From February to April daphne flowers are so fragrant that even I, who have a stuffy nose due to hay fever, can enjoy their citrus like fragrance through a mask. Winter daphne produces red berries in spring, but don't even think of eating. They're very toxic. Most of them in Japan are male, though.

2025/3/7

2025/3/6

2025/2/6

Kawazu Cherry (Cerasus x Kanzakura 'Kawazu-Zakura')　カワヅサクラ（河津桜）

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Kawazu cherry is a crossbreed of Oshima cherry (Prunus speciosa) and Taiwan cherry (Prunus campanulata) and named in 1972 after the Kawazu town, Shizuoka prefecture (Source: Kawazu town tourist association). Kawazu cherry trees bloom from early February to March, a little earlier than other cherry trees. A Kawazu cherry blossoms festival is held in the town every February.

Below is a list I've enjoyed viewing for the last couple of years. Hope you'll enjoy them, too!

2025/3/9

It's Okay for Women to be Assertive in Japan

In Japan, people often say it's important to read the air, that is, understand the unspoken wishes, and satisfy such wishes not to be marginalized. And this is truer of women. Below is a case I experienced many years ago when working for a large Japanese bank where I understood the intention of my supervisor but did not satisfy it.

Weeping Plum Blossoms　しだれ梅

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You can find many Chinese plum trees in Tokyo but not so many when it comes to weeping ones. Usual plum blossoms are beautiful but weeping plum blossoms are more gorgeous and spectacular when in full bloom!

Plants make people more talkative. A Hamilton's spindletre tree did so and plum trees did so, too. And thanks to that, I learned about the only weeping Japanese plum tree in my neighborhood (as far as I know) and was able to take these pictures.

The last three photos were taken three years ago in Ueno, Tokyo on a late afternoon when the Moon started rising in the sky.

2025/2/22

2026/2/8

2026/2/12

White Japanese Camellia　白椿

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In winter, you would see sasanqua camellias in many places in Tokyo. You would also find red Japanese camellias quite often, but not white Japanese camellias. The flowering season of Japanese camellia (Camellia japonica) is from December to April, the end of which overlaps with the beginning of the cherry blossom season. White Japanese camellias mean "perfection," "admiration," and "lovely."

2025/2/9

Plants in the Snow　雪の日の花たち

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It's snowing in Central Tokyo, which is unusual and fun!

2026/2/8 Weeping Japanese apricot 枝垂れ梅

2026/2/8

2026/2/8 Sasanqua camellia 山茶花

2026/2/8 Wintersweet 蝋梅

Japanese Camellia 'Bokuhan-Nishiki' (Camellia Japonica 'Bokuhan-Nishiki')　（ボクハンツバキ）卜伴椿

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I've seen red, white, and pink Japanese camellias. I've seen single, double, and thousand-flowered Japanese camellias. I've seen variegated Japanese camellias, too. But never these ones. They're Japanese camellia 'Bokuhan-nishiki' (Camellia japonica 'Bokuhan-nishiki'). Their mophead-like flower center is very unique, isn't it? The flower center consists of petals, which have been transformed from stamens, a different type of transformation gone through by thousand-flowered Japanese camellias, whose stamens (and pistils) have changed into petals and disappeared.

The camellia is named after Bokuhan, a Japanese tea master in the Edo period, who loved the camellia.

2026/1/24

Persian Buttercup (Ranunculus Asiaticus)　ラナンキュラス

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Persian buttercups (Ranunculus asiaticus) are native to Europe and West Asia but can be found in many places in Japan. The buttercup symbolizes "radiant charm," "attractiveness," and "dazzling beauty" and this is understandable given their layered petal details, which makes the bloom so gorgeous.

Ranunculus was originally yellow and single-flowered, but another variety of ranunculi was developed to meet people's demand for flowers which look like roses but bloom before roses. So, this multi-layered cultivar of ranunculus is a substitute for roses, but now the substitute is equal to or even more beautiful than the original.

2026/1/18

Euonymus Japonicus (Japanese Spindle)　柾（マサキ）

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Evergreen spindle or Japanese spindle (Euonymus japonicus) is native to Japan, China and Korea and can be found across Japan. The plant produces greenish white flowers (which I've never seen) from May to June and fruits from October to January. The split red fruits show uniquely shaped bright orange seeds. The fruits resemble those of Pittosporum tobira (Japanese cheesewood), but their color (a bit orangish), shape (a bit bigger), and way of hanging is different from tobira. Japanese spindle is toxic in its entirety, including the fruits.

2023/1/14

2026/1/17

"Thousand-Flowered" Pink, Red, and White Japanese Camellias　千重咲きのピンク、赤、白の椿

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Japanese camellia (Camellia japonica) has many cultivars and this is one of them, "thousand flowered" Japanese camellias. You don't see stamens because their stamens (and pistils) have disappeared or degenerated, or changed into petals.

The fact that these camellias have no stamens gave rise to one question for me, i.e. how a thousand flowered camellia dies. Will it fall off in its entirety like other usual Japanese camellias even though it has no stamens? The question occurred to me because the stamens of Japanese camellias (more specifically, the filament part) connect with petals, which allows their unique way of dying as opposed to sasanqua camellias, which die with petals falling off one by one without such connection. The answer is in the 7th photo. Even without stamens, a thousand flowered Japanese camellia falls off in its entirety. A Japanese camellia is a Japanese camellia whether it has stamens or not.

2026/1/17

2025/2/19

White Prunus Mume (White Plum Blossoms)　白梅

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Chinese plum/Japanese apricot trees (Prunus mume) are native to China and came to Japan about 1,500 years ago. Since then, Chinese plum trees have been cherished (e.g., blossoms viewed and fruits eaten) by Japanese people. Today, a symbol of spring in Japan is cherry blossoms but during the Nara period (710 to 794), it was definitely Prunus mume blossoms as supported by the fact that Mannyōshū (i.e., the oldest extant collection of Japanese poetry compiled during the Nara period) includes more poems about plum blossoms than those about cherry blossoms.

Scientifically, there is (or was) no white Prunus mume trees, but red Prunus mume trees have white flowers when they cannot produce enough anthocyanins to make flowers red (or pink). In other words, all the trees in this post tried to turn their flower color from white to pink (or even red) first, but they weren't able to produce enough anthocyanins, ending up creating white flowers. This explains why and how some plum trees have both red (pink) and white flowers.

2022/2/15