Red Camellia 真っ赤な落椿

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

People across Japan are excited about the start of the cherry blossom season, but they are missing something as beautiful as cherry blossoms. Camellia trees are now in full bloom, so the flower heads in my neighborhood are scattered on the ground as shown in the second photo!! 

Japanese camellia look like sasanqua and experts provide several ways to distinguish these two camellia flowers, i.e., the size of trees and the timing of flowering, but the most interesting difference is how they fall or die. When Japanese camellia flowers die, the flower heads fall off in their entirety and this way of dying was associated with beheaded human heads in the Edo (samurai) period. Naturally, despite their beauty, camellia flowers were unpopular among samurai. Unlike Japanese camellia, sasanqua flowers die with petals falling off one by one.

Red camellia is in full bloom　椿が満開

 

Camellia flower heads reminded samurai of beheaded human heads
これが首を連想させたそうです

 

   

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日本中ほぼサクラに浮かれていますが、何かお忘れではないでしょうか。そうなんです。椿が今満開です。どれだけ満開かというと落椿がそこここに（2枚目）。落椿は落ちた首を連想させたようで、江戸時代は武士に嫌われていたそうです。

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