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

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

These tiny orange flowers, which look like sparklers or "kokeshi" dolls, caught my eye. This is macleaya cordata or five-seeded plume-poppy. Kokeshi are wooden dolls with no arms or legs that have been crafted for more than 150 years as a toy in Japan.  

Macleaya cordata 竹似草

Five-seeded plume-poppy タケニグサ

They look like dolls 人形みたい

Or do they look like sparklers それとも線香花火？

Kokeshi dolls look innocent but some say that the dolls are mementos for parents to remember unwanted children they killed before or after birth. The term "kokeshi" also supports this theory, i.e., "ko" means a child and "keshi" means erasing,  removing, or extinguishing. You didn't want to hear this? 

But now for most Japanese people, kokeshi are adorable traditional Japanese dolls, without reminding them of such a history, which is sad and, although legally, may still happen even now...  

Five-seeded plume-poppy is called "Plant similar to bamboo" in Japanese because of their hollow stems like bamboos or their appearance in winter being similar to bamboos, which has added something enjoyable for me this coming winter.

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竹似草（タケニグサ）です。オレンジのちっちゃい花がカワイクありませんか。線香花火？私には人にも見えました。茎が中空であることや冬枯れの様子が竹や笹に似ているのでこの名が付いたとのこと。名前はあまりかわいくないです｡｡｡

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