Tricyrtis Formosana 'Samurai' (Toad Lily) ホトトギス

Japanese follows English.　英語の後に日本語が続きます。

This is tricyrtis formosana 'Samurai' I had seen before the heat wave in Japan started early August...

Tricyrtis formosana 'Samurai'　ホトトギス

Toad lily　杜鵑草

Toad lily is hairy! 毛深いね😆

It's also called toad lily because it has spots looking like a toad's skin, and it prefers shady, moist places like toads. But this perception is not true of Japan. The toad lily is named "lesser cuckoo" in Japanese after the spots, which look like the chest plumage of this small bird.

Lesser cuckoo is "ほととぎす/ホトトギス" in Japanese hiragana/katakana form, but not only that. It has (too!) many names in Chinese characters as follows. (Japanese uses three characters; hiragana, katakana and Chinese characters.): 
- 杜鵑
- 杜宇
- 蜀魂
- 不如帰
- 時鳥
- 子規
- 田鵑

All of these mean "ほととぎす/ホトトギス (i.e., lesser cuckoo)" or tricyrtis formosana 'Samurai.' The flower is also called "oil stain flower" because of the spots. Wow, this small flower has stirred our imagination in many ways, i.e., toad, lesser cuckoo, oil stain.... 

Tricyrtis formosana 'Samurai' or Japanese toad lily is not so conspicuous, but the color and spots combined with its three petals and three sepals makes the flower so pretty! What do you see in this flower, a toad, a lesser cuckoo or oil stains? 

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ホトトギスです。斑点が鳥の胸の斑点と似ているからだそうです。杜鵑、杜宇、蜀魂、不如帰、時鳥、子規、田鵑とも書きます。油の模様染みにも見えるから油点草（ユテンソウ）とも言います。

英語では「toad lily」、カエルユリ。カエルの模様に似ているからだそうです。

つまり、ホトトギス、油、カエルと、少なくとも３通りの創造を掻き立てたわけです。それほど目立つ花ではないのですが、色と模様、そして３枚の花弁と３枚のガク。全体で見ると何ともかわいく思えてしまうのは私だけでしょうか｡｡｡

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