Plants and Flowers in Tokyo & Japanese Culture by Kei Narujima　東京の草花＆つぶやき

Japanese Laurel (Aucuba Japonica)　青木（アオキ）

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Japanese laurel (Aucuba japonica) is native to, and can be found across, Japan. The plant produces small purplish brown flowers from March to May and oval fruits in autumn, which are green at first and then turn bright red beautifully in mid-December. Most of the leaves are deep green while some are variegated.

The name "Aucuba" is derived from one of its Japanese names "aokiba," meaning "blue leaf" because the leaves and stems are "blue" throughout the year. Blue? You think I mistook "green" for "blue"?

I didn't! In Japan, people use "blue" for "green." For example, they say "blue" traffic lights and "blue" apples, instead of "green" lights and "green" apples. This is because Japan used to have only four colors, white, black, red, and blue, and the then "blue" included green. In "The Man'yoshu," the oldest existing collection of waka or Japanese poetry, compiled sometime after AD 759 during the Nara period (710-784), green leaves were described as "blue" leaves. The color green was differentiated from blue in the 10th century.

2024/2/5

2023/12/29

2025/11/10

Henbit Deadnettle (Lamium Amplexicaule)　ホトケノザ（仏の座）

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Henbit deadnettle (Lamium amplexicaule) can be found across Japan. The plant is supposed to produce flowers from March to June but as you can see in these photos, it has flowers throughout the year but summer. The flowers have a unique shape with spots, which plays an important role to attract pollinators, like bees. Its Japanese name means "lotus seat for Buddha." How lovely would it be to sit on it!😊

2025/1/30

2022/11/7

Ginkgo (Ginkgo Biloba)　イチョウ（銀杏）

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The ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba), a gymnosperm plant, has male and female trees. The male does not produce flowers but pollen while the female produces fruits from September to November. In Central Tokyo, you can see many ginkgo trees but most of them in the office district are male to prevent people from stepping on the fruits. Ginkgo fruits are so stinky, smelling like something rotten, when raw that nobody wouldn't want to step on them but they're considered one of the autumn delicacies in Japan.

Its leaves turn bright yellow (or golden!) beautifully. According to "The Process of Leaf Color Change," in autumn triggered by shorter days and lower temperatures the leaves stop their food making process. The chlorophyll breaks down, the green colour disappears and the yellow and orange colours become visible. At the same time other chemical changes may occur which form additional colours through the development of red pigments. Some mixtures give rise to reddish and purplish autumn colours such as dogwoods and sumachs, while others give maple its brilliant orange. The autumn foliage of some trees show only yellow colours, whilst others like oaks show only brown. All these colours are the varying amounts of the chlorophyll residue and other pigments in the leaf.

The next question is how? Does the color change happen in all parts of the leaves at the same time or from one part to another? You can see the answer in the last two photos of ginkgo leaves changing yellow from the edge to the middle😊!

2024/11/30

2025/11/1

2025/11/10

Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia Glyptostroboides)　メタセコイア

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Some plants are aesthetically pleasing throughout the year and dawn redwood trees (Metasequoia glyptostroboides) are one of them. Last autumn, their leaves created a gorgeous view (scroll down). In spring, their small cones made me chuckle and the leaves created a magnificent, fresh green view. And yesterday, I found a tree with fruits, which look like matcha chocolates.

The dawn redwood is a living fossil species. They're tall and their leaves look like fern leaves, which explains to me why I feel like I were in the dinosaur era under the trees.

2025/6/6

Ring-Cupped Oak (Quercus Glauca)　アラカシ（粗樫）

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Ring-cupped oak or Japanese blue oak trees (Quercus glauca) can be found almost across Japan. They produce acorns from October to November and the acorns are not only fed on by insects and birds but were eaten by people as a famine food in Japan. Oak trees are usually known for the acorns but ring-cupped oak trees produce beautiful cylindrical flowers (6th and 7th photos) and red shoots (5th photo), which look like the heads of Pteranodon (to me), from April to May.

2025/11/8

Chinese Quince (Pseudocydonia Sinensis)　カリン（花梨）

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The Chinese quince (Pseudocydonia sinensis) is native to China but now can be found across Japan. The plant is known for the fruits but enjoyable throughout the year. Its pink flowers are pretty, jam made from the fruits is yummy, and the autumn leaves are so colorfully beautiful.

2025/4/9

Single-Flowered White Sasanqua Camellia　一重の白い山茶花

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Single flowered camellia sasanquas are less gorgeous than but as beautiful as double flowered ones and are easier to access for insects.

2025/11/8

Autumn Leaves　紅葉

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The best season for autumn leaves in Tokyo is from late November to early December and leaves on some trees have started to change color. Many go to famous (and sometimes distant and busy) places to see fall leaves but you can enjoy autumn foliage here and there in Central Tokyo without being disturbed by crowds.

2025/11/14

2025/11/7

2023/11/24

Hydrangea Turning Red in Autumn　秋色紫陽花

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The hydrangea was pale pink, blue, and green in early summer. So, its color change to red toward autumn surprises me (3rd photo). Such a color change occurs because of increasing anthocyanin due to a change in the temperature and/or the amount of ultraviolet radiation. For whatever the reason, it's just amazing.

2025/6/8

2025/5/29

2025/11/1

Sacred Bamboo (Nandina Domestica)　ナンテン（南天）

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The sacred bamboo (Nandina domestica) is native to China and came to Japan before the 16th century and now found across Japan. The plant is called "南天 (nanten)" in Japanese, which translates to South India, because it was believed to have come from there. The term "nanten," however, can also be written as "難転," which translates into "a blessing in disguise" and therefore the sacred bamboo is used for Japanese New Year decorations.

The sacred bamboo is known for its beautiful red berries but its leaves also turn red gorgeously from late autumn to winter.

2025/11/3

2021/11/14

Pale Grass Blue (Pseudozizeeria Maha)　大和小灰蝶（ヤマトシジミ）

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A pale grass blue butterfly (Pseudozizeeria maha) is plain at a glance (3rd photo) but you would be surprised when seeing the upper side of a male one, which is beautiful pale blue as its name suggests. Butterflies are known to open their wings to bask in the sun to warm their bodies, so you're more likely to see the beautiful blue in autumn than summer.

The pale grass blue resembles the plains cupid (Luthrodes pandava) very much except for the latter having orange spots on the wings. I once mistook a plains cupid for a pale grass blue.

2025/11/2

2024/11/5

2022/11/9

Common Straight Swift (Parnara guttata)　イチモンジセセリ（一文字挵）

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Butterflies usually fold wings when resting while moths with open wings. The common straight swift (Parnara guttata) is a butterfly but sometimes rests with open wings to absorb the warmth of the sun, thanks to which I've learned that their back is green (in the 1st and 2nd photos). The 3rd photo is of an ant carrying a dead common straight swift.

The common straight swift is called "ichimonji seseri" in Japanese, meaning "straight line skipper" after its white spots in a straight line while small branded swift (Pelopidas mathias), which has white spots in a circle, is called "chabane seseri," meaning "brown wing skipper."

2025/11/2

2025/10/13

Pink and White Marbled Sasanqua Camellia　源平咲きの山茶花

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Sasanqua camellias (Camellia sasanqua) are native to Japan and can be found across Japan. The plant produces white, pink, and red flowers from October to December, earlier than Japanese camellia (Camellia japonica), which is one of the differences between the two camellias.

These two camellias resemble each other and experts provide several ways to distinguish them. One is the size of trees and another the timing of flowering, but the most interesting difference is how they fall or die. Sasanqua flowers die with petals falling off one by one while 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 its beauty, the Japanese camellia was unpopular among samurai. If you're interested in such "beheaded" camellias, read this post!

If you're interested in other marble colored flowers, read the following posts!

2025/11/1

2023/12/25

Winter Cherry (Cerasus x Parvifolia/Cerasus Subhirtella)　フユザクラ（冬桜）

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The winter cherry (Cerasus x parvifolia 'Fuyu-zakura') is a crossbreed of Cerasus incisa and Cerasus speciosa. The cherry differs from other cherry trees in its time of blossoming. The winter cherry blossoms twice a year, in early April and in winter (from October to December), because of which the cherry tree is called "winter cherry" in Japan.

It has another name "koba zakura," which translates into "small leaf cherry" for its relatively smaller leaves. The winter cherry blossoms are less gorgeous but stay longer than other cherry blossoms, which generally fall in two weeks.

Some say when passing by a winter cherry tree that it's silly, blooming out of season but at such times I always say in my mind "It's you who are silly😝."

2021/11/25

2022/12/9

Firethorn Tree (Pyracantha)　ピラカンサ（常盤山査子）

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The firethorn or pyracantha is native to an area extending from Southwest Europe east to Southeast Asia and can be found across Japan. The plant produces beautiful white flowers from April to May and red, orange, and yellow fruits from November to January.

Firethorn trees in Japan usually are 1 to 2 meter tall but they can reach up to 5 meter tall. I once saw such a tall tree (2nd photo) several years ago but the tree was removed because of the redevelopment of the surrounding area, which is sad but often happens in Central Tokyo.

2021/11/23

White-Banded Hunter Hawkmoth (Theretra Oldenlandiae)　セスジスズメ（背筋雀）

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I've seen the black caterpillars in autumn for the last several years. They're caterpillars of the impatiens hawkmoth or white-banded hunter hawkmoth and can be found across Japan. The caterpillars are (kind of) cute but the adults are cool, looking like fighter aircrafts.

2024/9/4

2025/10/28

Golden Mimosa (Acacia Baileyana)　ギンヨウアカシア（銀葉金合歓）

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Golden mimosa (Acacia baileyana) is native to Australia but can be found across Japan. The trees produce beautiful golden flowers from January to March and show beautiful red leaves in autumn.

2025/3/2

2025/10/18

Japanese Chestnut (Castanea Crenata)　日本グリ（和栗）

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The Japanese chestnut (Castanea crenata) is native to Japan and Korea and can be found across Japan. Chestnuts are used for many dishes in Japan, not only sweets but also mixed rice or kuri gohan.

There are the following types of chestnuts according to Adachi Otoemon, a confectionery shop in Kyoto:

Japanese chestnut (Castanea crenata)
Western chestnut (Castanea sativa)
Chinese chestnut (Castanea mollissima)
American chestnut (Castanea dentata)

I know all of them are sweet so I want to taste them all to decide which is the sweetest😋!

2025/10/19

Orange Sweet Osmanthus (Osmanthus Fragrans Var. Aurantiacus)　キンモクセイ（金木犀）

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Orange sweet osmanthus (Osmanthus fragrans var. aurantiacus), a variety of sweet osmanthus, is native to China and came to Japan in the 17th century. As its name suggests, the flowers are so fragrant that orange sweet osmanthus is designated as one of the three most fragrant flowers in Japan together with winter daphne and cape jasmine.

The orange sweet osmanthus has been propagated from cuttings in Japan because only male plants were imported to Japan.

2025/10/24 Fully open

2025/10/24

Pink and White Bush Clovers (Lespedeza Buergeri)　キハギ（木萩）

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Pink and white bush clovers (Lespedeza buergeri) can be found across Japan. Generally, bush clovers produce pink/purple flowers but this type produces flowers which have the large white upper petal (banner) with a base and the two side petals (wings) both of which are purple.

2025/10/18