Wax-Leaf Privet (Ligustrum Japonicum) ネズミモチ（鼠糯）

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Does it look like a small caterpillar to you? I closely looked at it on a fruit of a wax-leaf privet tree (Ligustrum japonicum) but couldn't tell. But even if so, why didn't it move an inch? Is it hibernating? Or is it dead just before decomposing?  

The tree is called "nezumi mochi" in Japanese, that means "mouse mochi" because the fruit looks like mouse droppings and the leaves resemble those of the mochi tree or the elegance female holly (Ilex integra). The fruits of wax-leaf privet tree are used in herbal medicine. 

2024/12/29

2024/12/29

Hong Kong Kumquat (Fortunella Hindsii Swingle) マメキンカン（豆金柑）

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This is a bonsai tree made from Hong Kong kumquat (Fortunella hindsii Swingle) and a moss ball. I'm Japanese but have never grown a bonsai tree and never thought I would. Someone gave it to me and suddenly the responsibility to grow this bonsai has fallen on me. One of my New Year resolutions will be to keep it from drying out!

Hassaku Orange ハッサク（八朔）

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I found Chinese quince fruits scattered on the ground, brought two back home and made jam from them ten days ago. My next target now is these hassaku oranges. 

The hassaku orange is a Japanese citrus hybrid between pomelo and mandarin, with pomelo-like characteristics (Source: Wikipedia). Marmalade made from hassaku is so tasty, but there's one problem. Peels of hassaku oranges at grocery stores should contain pesticide. I used to wash them by brush or remove a thin outer layer of the peel but as the outer layer is so orange, I want to use the fruit whole without throwing away any of it. So now, you see why and how badly I want these pesticide-free oranges! 

The tree grows in a public space and it's not so busy there but I'm pretty sure that neighbors like me want to have some of these, too for the same reason as mine. From today on, I need to be vigilant, going there as often as possible to pick them up as soon as they fall to the ground😆! 

Double-Flowered White Camellia Sasanqua (Sasanqua Camellia) 八重咲きの白いサザンカ（山茶花）

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Camellia sasanquas can be seen in many places in Tokyo, but I rarely see trees with so many, so pure white, double flowered sasanquas. I feel I see more sasanqua blooms (whether white or red) this year than usual. This year may be a good year for camellia sasanquas.  

2024/12/26

2024/12/26

Aloe アロエ

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I found the buds in November and have been observing them since then and now I know what aloe flowers are like. These are flowers of aloes more specifically candelabra aloe (Aloe arborescens). I didn't know the aloe produces flowers or has two types, i.e., the Aloe arborescens and the Aloe vera. I can tell those in these photos are the former because the flowers are red. The Aloe vera produces yellow flowers. 

2024/12/24

2024/12/24

False Holly (Osmanthus Heterophyllus) ヒイラギ（柊）

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These are false holly flowers (Osmanthus heterophyllus). They're so tiny and white, looking innocent. Something else attracted my attention, however. The leaves on the 1st photo are all round unlike the plant's usual leaf shape. Then I learned that false holly trees change their leaf shape from spiky to round as they age and/or from round to spiky in response to hungry animals according to a Japanese tree doctor. Whether either or both are correct, this shows the adaptability of plants.   

2024/12/22

2024/12/22

2024/12/22

Pink Camellia Sasanqua (Sasanqua Camellia) ピンクの山茶花（サザンカ）

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Camellia, camellia, camellia! It’s my first time to see such big camellia sasanqua trees (4th photo) and my second time to see a camellia sasanqua tree having so many flowers! As you may know, the flowers of the sasanqua camellia and those of the Japanese camellia resemble each other but they're different in several ways, one of which is how a flower dies. A sasanqua flower dies with petals falling off one by one while a Japanese camellia flower falls off in its entirety. 

2024/12/20

2024/12/20

2024/12/20

2024/12/20

Chinese Quince (Pseudocydonia Sinensis) カリン（花梨）

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I found these Chinese quince fruits (2nd photo) on the ground while on an early morning walk, took them home, and made jam! It sounds so simple but it wasn't because I had to go through certain "procedures" to make the jam! 

First, I made sure that the garden where the Chinese quince trees grew was a public garden and then asked a man cleaning the garden if there were any specific procedures to go through to have the fruits. He said that there were no such procedures and that people just took them. He even told me that there were Chinese quince trees growing in another public garden nearby and the trees there must have many fruits. Wow! 

You may wonder why I was such cautious but there's a reason for that. Some gardens in my neighborhood look public but actually are not and sometimes have "Don't pick fruit!" signs out of the blue. But now I've been cleared. I can get as many quinces as possible to make jam! 

A week later, I happened to see him again, so I said thank you and he asked me if I was able to get the fruits. Of course I answered, "Yes I did and I made jam!" He was smiling and I was smiling, too. It was a very nice day!! 

Chinese quince jam has a tart taste, so I added more sugar than when making other jam and it worked. The jam is sweet but also mildly sour, going well with yogurt. The Chinese quince is good for your health, i.e., decreasing bacterial growth, improving heart health, healing wounds faster, and relieving constipation. And you know what? Just looking at such beautiful orange color jam makes you happy! 

If you're interested in pink Chinese quince flowers, scroll down.   

2024/12/16 It's not sea urchin!!

December 2024

East Asian Eurya (Eurya Japonica) 姫榊（ヒサカキ）

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These are flowers of East Asian eurya (Eurya japonica). In Japan, the East Asian eurya is used for Shinto rituals. It's understandable that their flower language in Japan is "Respect deities." 

2024/3/24

2024/3/24

2024/3/24

Maple Leaves in Autumn もみじの紅葉

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Some leaves are still green but that makes the perfect color gradients from green to yellow, orange and red. Autumn leaves are beautiful but more beautiful against the blue sky.  

2024/12/14

2024/12/27

2024/12/27

Burning Bush (Euonymus Alatus) ニシキギ（錦木）

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The deep bright red color caught my eye. They're burning bush (Euonymus alatus). As the name suggests, the leaves look really "burning." The burning bush is called "nishiki gi" in Japanese, which means "brocade tree," after such beautiful red color of the leaves like brocade in autumn. The season of autumn leaves in Tokyo is nearing the end with still remaining leaves on a few trees like this.

2024/12/12

2024/12/12

2024/12/12

Autumn Leaves - Their Way of Turning Red 紅葉してますけどそれが何か？

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I was doing jump rope and squats in a small park nearby this morning as usual, turned around, saw this, and murmured, "What the hell?," and then burst out laughing! Autumn leaves usually make me say "Wow" with their magnificent color gradients, but this vine of leaves caught my eye with not the bright red color but their way of being! Every leaf has their own way of turning red. 

Chrysanthemum キク（菊）

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I found these chrysanthemums at a bus stop. There were only two but their bright contrast between the red ray florets and the yellow disk florets caught my eye. 

   

Chrysanthemums are special in Japan. The Imperial Seal of Japan is called the Chrysanthemum Seal and used by the Emperor of Japan and members of the Imperial Family. But for me, the flowers are special in a different way, i.e., always reminding me of "The Inugami Clan," a murder mystery book by Seishi Yokomizo (1902-1981), one of the most famous crime authors in Japan who created the private detective character Kosuke Kindaichi.

You may wonder how chrysanthemums, such beautiful flowers, are related to a crime novel. That's because they play a key role in "The Inugami Clan" as one of the three sacred treasures for the clan, i.e., a golden chrysanthemum, a golden axe, and a golden koto or Japanese harp made by Sahee Inugami, the super-rich head of the family. These golden treasures were proof of heirship, and you can easily guess, the family members are killed one after another over this heirship and the head of a victim is replaced with the head of a chrysanthemum doll... AHHH😱

I read almost all the books by Seishi Yokomizo when I was a kid. (I was a bit different from other kids.) Yokomizo respected Ellery Queen and Agatha Christie, but liked John Dickson Carr the most. If you like reading crime books, you can guess what Yokomizo's stories are like.

Chrysanthemums are pretty, colorful flowers, having nothing to do with bloody murders. Maybe it's time for me to change this terrible perception of chrysanthemums.

Heart-Shaped Yellow Leaves ハート形の黄葉

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One or two may not have caught my eye but that many hearts did and made me smile.

Fall Foliage 紅葉

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Yesterday, I enjoyed magnificent gradations from green to red and today gradations from green to yellow. Interestingly, in Japan, the change in the color of leaves in autumn is called "koyo," which literally means "red leaves" whether they turn red or yellow. So, these yellow leaves are in Japanese "koyo," i.e., red leaves😆.

Autumn Leaves in Japan 紅葉

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The fall foliage season is getting later and later in Japan and many trees in my neighborhood still have green leaves, but this tree has got a head start over its peers. Red leaves are beautiful but leaves just before turning completely red create magnificent gradations from green to red.  

Amur Peppervine (Ampelopsis Glandulosa) ノブドウ（野葡萄）

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I found them on a roadside (2nd photo) and had never seen such turquoise blue fruits. These are fruits of Amur peppervine (Ampelopsis glandulosa). The Amur peppervine produces green, blue, purple, pink and yellow fruits with black or brown speckles. I saw blue and purple ones, so the next thing to do is to find pink and yellow Amur peppervine fruits.  

Moonflower (Ipomoe Alba) ヨルガオ（夜顔）

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I said "Wow" and you would say so, too if you saw them. These are fruits of moonflowers (Ipomoea alba) but they look like small eggplants🍆, don't they!? Just three weeks ago, the plant gave pleasure to the eye of passerby with elegantly gorgeous large white flowers (2nd photo) while now surprising them with these small eggplant-like fruits.

The question was of course if they were edible and sadly I found moonflowers toxic in their entirety from flowers, to stems, seeds, and fruits. 

 
When I saw the flowers for the first time, I thought they were some morning glories but didn't know their specific type but an Instagram follower told me they were moonflowers (Ipomoea alba), which made sense to me because the flowers are like the Moon and open at night. I saw them only closed or half open in the morning (5th and 6th photos). 

In Japan, morning glories are broadly classified into the following three types according to the time when they open: asagao, hirugao, and yorugao, meaning "MORNING face (i.e., Ipomoea)," "AFTERNOON face (i.e., Japanese bindweed)," and "NIGHT face (i.e., moonflowers)" respectively.

But that's not it. Japan has a plant called "EVENING face," which is actually the calabash, but because of the resemblance of the flower to morning glories, the calabash is called "EVENING face" and its dried shavings of the fruit are eaten under the name of "kanpyo," which is an ingredient of SUSHI😋!!  

2024/11/23

2024/11/1

Korean Spindle Tree (Euonymus Oxyphyllus) 吊花（ツリバナ）

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Fruits split open here and there and these are fruits of the Korean spindle tree (Euonymus oxyphyllus) showing bright orange arils. As the fruits are there, the flowers must have been there, too in early summer, but I didn't notice them at all but that's understandable. The flowers (which I've seen in another place) are so small, one centimeter in diameter. The plant's Japanese name is "hanging flower." You can easily see why if you look at the flowers (3rd to 5th photos)😊!

Japanese Cheesewood (Pittosporum Tobira) トベラ（扉）

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The fruits of Japanese cheesewood (Pittosporum tobira) in my neighborhood have started to split open to show bright red seeds. I've enjoyed seeing the fruits every winter for the last several years and am still intrigued by their color change from deep green in summer (3rd and 4th photos) to creamy yellow with such glossy red seeds. 

Japanese cheesewood is called "tobira" in Japanese, meaning "door" after an old Japanese ritual of hanging a sprig of tobira on the door with a baked sardine head on February 3 or setsubun, i.e., the date before the beginning of spring on the lunisolar calendar, to expel evil spirits.  

Maple Leaves in Autumn 紅葉

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Going to a famous tourist spot to see beautiful autumn leaves is one thing and going for a walk in your neighborhood to look for the small beauty around you another. Autumn leaves in my neighborhood have started changing color from green to yellow and orange, and then to red. My favorite way of enjoying autumn leaves is to see from below against the blue sky, which makes the leaves strikingly beautiful. 

Longstalk Holly (Ilex Pedunculosa) ソヨゴ（戦）

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The red berries and the deep green leaves made me smile. This is longstalk holly (Ilex pedunculosa). Many plants produce red, purple, or black fruits in autumn but the longstalk holly berries are unique, hanging from the tree like cherries🍒. The longstalk holly produces tiny and adorable flowers!