Buttercup Witch Hazel - An Unsolved Mystery of Hazelnut Syrup😁 日向水木(ヒュウガミズキ)

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

This is corylopsis pauciflora, or buttercup witch hazel or winter hazel. The translucent yellow color reminded me of chimonanthus praecox or wintersweet.

Corylopsis pauciflora  日向水木

Buttercup witch hazel ヒュウガミズキ

Corylopsis pauciflora  日向水木

Winter hazel 色が蝋梅みたい


I didn't know what the plant was at first, so googled and found two candidates, i.e., corylopsis pauciflora or corylopsis spicata. Then I learned an obvious difference between the two, i.e., the color of the stamens and pistils. If they are yellow, that's corylopsis pauciflora (i.e., the one in these photos), while if they are red, corylopsis spicata.

By the way, the term "hazel" in "buttercup witch hazel" reminded me of what happened a few years ago. 

My husband (I will call him Richard) loves coffee, particularly coffee with "vanilla syrup." That day, we went to a coffee shop to read, and he ordered a cup of coffee with vanilla syrup. After one sip, however, he murmured. "This isn't vanilla."

He held out a mug of coffee to me, telling me that was not vanilla but hazelnut syrup and asking me what I thought. I sniffed his coffee, but couldn't tell. The amount of the syrup was too small to tell. He sniffed and sipped the coffee again, then went to the counter, asking a staff member if they might have mistakenly put not vanilla but hazelnut syrup. The staff member immediately apologized, which is a Japanese way of handling complaints, made another cup for free, and said that he'd put vanilla syrup in it. Richard took it back to his seat, sniffed and sipped it, and shaked his head. He went to the counter again and got another or a third cup, but again the same result... Richard gave up.

Ever since then, whenever we pass by the coffee shop, he's insisted that the shop's bottle for vanilla syrup that day did contain hazelnut syrup or that bottle had been used for hazelnut syrup before being refilled with vanilla syrup, so the hazelnut flavor remaining in the bottle must have transferred to the vanilla syrup! Can that happen? I don't know. But I won't say anything to him because that's a key to maintaining a LOVING relationship😁💕 

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日向水木(ヒュウガミズキ)です。蝋梅みたいな色に惹かれて調べたら、土佐水木(トサミズキ)と日向水木(ヒュウガミズキ)と二つ候補を発見。でも区別は簡単!トサミズキの蕊は赤で、ヒュウガミズキは黄色。これは蕊が黄色なのでヒュウガミズキに決定!

英語名に「hazel」が入っているので、数年前の「ヘーゼルナッツ事件」を思い出しました。主人はコーヒーに必ずバニラシロップを入れるのですが、その日(コーヒーショップにいました)、コーヒーをクンクン嗅ぎながら「これバニラ(シロップ)じゃないよね。ヘーゼルナッツだよね」とカップを差し出してきたのです。私にはわからず、作り直してもらったのですが彼は納得せず。再度の作り直しでもやはり「これはヘーゼルナッツだ。バニラじゃない!」と言い張り、結局ギブアップしました。

以来そのコーヒーショップの前を通るたび彼は「バニラシロップの容器にはもともとヘーゼルナッツシロップが入っていて、香りが移ったんだ」と言い張ってます。私ですか?何も言いません。うんうんと聞いています。それが夫婦円満の秘訣です😁💕

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