Red, White, and Yellow Spider Lily (Lycoris) ヒガンバナ（曼珠沙華/彼岸花）

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Spider lilies are native to China but can be found across Japan. They flower in September and therefore are called "Autumnal equinox flower" in Japanese. Spider lilies are known generally as red flowers (Lycoris radiata) but they produce white (Lycoris albiflora) and yellow (Lycoris traubii) flowers. A white spider lily is not a sibling of a red one, but a cross-breed of a red and a yellow spider lilies. It's interesting that a child of red and yellow flowers is white.

A yellow spider lily is called "Shouki zuisen" in Japanese, translating to "Zhong Kui lily" as its petals look like the beard of Zhong Kui, a demon hunter and Chinese deity who fights ghosts. 

Despite their beauty, red spider lilies are associated with death in Japan for an unfair but understandable reason. Although cremation is the most popular now, burial used to be common in Japan and therefore red spider lilies were planted to keep moles and other animals away from bodies because the plant's bulbs are poisonous. Spider lilies are called "higan bana," meaning "flowers during the higan period." "Higan" is a Buddhist holiday, i.e., three days before and after both the Spring equinox and Autumnal equinox. 

2025/9/26

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. 

2026/9/20

Pink and White Bush Clovers (Lespedeza Buergeri) キハギ（木萩）

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Pink and white bush clovers (Lespedeza buergeri) can be found across Japan. Generally, bush clovers produce pink/purple flowers but this type produces flowers which have the large white upper petal (banner) with a base and the two side petals (wings) both of which are purple. Lespedeza buergeri blooms from July to September, making it the earliest to flower among the bush clovers.

2026/9/20

2026/9/20

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!!  

2026/9/20 Camellia japonica

Orange Sweet Osmanthus (Osmanthus Fragrans Var. Aurantiacus) キンモクセイ（金木犀）

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Orange sweet osmanthus (Osmanthus fragrans var. aurantiacus), a variety of sweet osmanthus, is native to China and came to Japan in the 17th century. As its name suggests, the flowers are so fragrant that orange sweet osmanthus is designated as one of the three most fragrant flowers in Japan together with winter daphne and cape jasmine.

The orange sweet osmanthus has been propagated from cuttings in Japan because only male plants were imported to Japan. 

2026/9/19

Autumn Leaves of Flowering Dogwood (Cornus Florida) ハナミズキ（花水木）の紅葉

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One of the pleasures in autumn is to enjoy viewing leaves turn red and yellow. My favorite autumn leaves are maple, Chinese tallow, and those in these pictures. Flowering dogwood. It's a bit early for the best season but these orange and red leaves and bright red fruits are beautiful enough.  

2026/9/19

2024/10/21

Chinese Tallow (Triadica Sebifera) 南京櫨（ナンキンハゼ）

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The Chinese tallow is one of my favorite plants for its beauty throughout the year, i.e., spike-like green flowers and three-lobed also beautiful green fruits from spring to summer, gorgeous gradients of red, orange, and yellow leaves in autumn (scroll down!), and chubby white seeds covered in capsules, which are green at first but turn black, in winter. The tree is native to China but can be found across Japan. Its leaves offer comfortable habitats to insects, like nettle caterpillars (scroll down) and yellow spotted stink bugs. 

2021/12/2

Fruits of Cornus Florida (Flowering Dogwood) 花水木（ハナミズキ）の実

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These are fruits (drupes) of Cornus florida or dogwood flowers. Their flowers resemble those of Cornus kousa so much that it's not easy to tell but their fruits are completely different. Cornus florida shows unexpectedly gorgeous autumn leaves. 

2026/9/19

Corchoropsis カラスノゴマ（烏胡麻）

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Corchoropsis is native to east Asia and can be found across Japan, producing yellow flowers from August to September. There are several types of Corchoropsis in east Asia but Japan has only the type of those in these photos, Corchoropsis crenata Sieb. et Zucc. Its Japanese name is "karasu no goma," which translates into "crow's sesame," after the resemblance of its seeds to sesames and crows eating the seeds.

2026/9/17

Japanese Chestnut (Castanea Crenata) 日本グリ（和栗）

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Finding a still-green chestnut burr on the ground made me look up at the tree above me. The Japanese chestnut (Castanea crenata) is native to Japan and Korea and can be found across Japan. Chestnuts are used for many dishes in Japan, not only sweets but also mixed rice or kuri gohan. 

There are the following types of chestnuts according to Adachi Otoemon, a confectionery shop in Kyoto: 

• Japanese chestnut (Castanea crenata)
• Western chestnut (Castanea sativa)
• Chinese chestnut (Castanea mollissima)
• American chestnut (Castanea dentata)

I want to taste them all to decide which is the sweetest😋!

2026/9/4

Confederate Rose (Hibiscus Mutabilis cv. Versicolor) スイフヨウ（酔芙蓉）

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These are Confederate roses (Hibiscus mutabilis cv. versicolor) and the first five photos are of one flower, taken at 10:00, 12:30, 15:30 and 16:30 on 16 September 2024 and at 5:30 on the following morning. After such a color change from pure white in the morning to pink in the afternoon, this type of Confederate roses is named "sui fuyou," which translates into "drunken Confederate rose."

The sixth and the last ones are red and white marbled. Some Japanese apricot trees produce such colored flowers but (I believe that) a Confederate rose tree producing such flowers is quite unusual. White apricot trees don't exist but red ones produce white or red/white marbled flowers when they cannot produce enough anthocyanins to make flowers red. The same may apply to this hibiscus tree. 

If you want to see peach, Japanese apricot, or lespedeza having white, pink/red or marble-colored flowers on a tree, read the following posts: 

- Red & White Marble Colored Flowering Peach

- Half & Half Colored Japanese Apricot (White & Pink)!

- Lespedeza Japonica Bailey cv. Versicolor (Variegated Bush Clover)

10:00 a.m., 2024/9/16