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

Japanese Camellia 'Bokuhan-Nishiki' (Camellia Japonica 'Bokuhan-Nishiki')　（ボクハンツバキ）卜伴椿

英語の後に日本語が続きます。

I've seen red, white, and pink Japanese camellias. I've seen single, double, and thousand-flowered Japanese camellias. I've seen variegated Japanese camellias, too. But never these ones. They're Japanese camellia 'Bokuhan-nishiki' (Camellia japonica 'Bokuhan-nishiki'). Their mophead-like flower center is very unique, isn't it? The flower center consists of petals, which have been transformed from stamens, a different type of transformation gone through by thousand-flowered Japanese camellias, whose stamens (and pistils) have changed into petals and disappeared.

The camellia was named after Bokuhan, a Japanese tea master in the Edo period, who loved the camellia.

2025/3/8

Pink and White Winter Daphne (Daphne Odora and Daphne Odora F. Alba)　沈丁花と白花沈丁花

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Pink (Daphne odora) and white winter daphne (Daphne odora f. alba), which started to bloom a month ago, are now in full bloom. The cream ones (6th photo) were plain as buds but have turned pure white and elegant when open (2nd photo), don't you think? Daphne flowers are so fragrant that even I, who have a stuffy nose due to hay fever, was able to enjoy their citrus like fragrance through a mask.

2025/3/7

2025/3/6

Smiling Monkey Forest Tree (Magnolia Maudiae)　ミヤマガンショウ（深山含笑）

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I've been busy so haven't been able to take a morning walk for the last week. And this morning, when going through a nearby park for the first time in a week, I felt something wrong. The white camellia sasanqua tree I wrote about last month seemed to have moved about one meter to the left??? I stared at the tree, ten meters away from the tree, approaching it, and finding it not a camellia tree but a smiling monkey forest tree (Magnolia maudiae)! The white camellia tree, which had many white blooms until a week ago, has lost all of them and instead the smiling monkey forest tree, left next to the camellia tree, has bloomed over the last week!

I did research about why the magnolia is called "smiling monkey forest tree" but couldn't find any information. Interestingly, its Japanese name means "smiling flowers in deep mountains." Maybe everyone seeing the flower is reminded of someone's or monkeys' smiling face.

2025/3/7

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

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I found a mimosa tree last month and found another one this week. Unlike the former, however, the latter has (or seems to have) deep purple flowers and so may be another species, i.e., golden mimosa (Acacia baileyana). The tree with golden and purple flowers created a beautiful contrast with the silver green leaves against the blue sky.

2025/3/2

Japanese Andromeda 'Rosea' (Pieris Japonica F. Rosea)　アケボノアセビ（曙馬酔木）

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Japanese andromeda usually has white flowers but this species produces pink ones. They're Japanese andromeda 'Rosea' (Pieris japonica f. Rosea). The plant is called in Japanese "Asebi (馬酔木)" meaning a tree which makes horses drunk because horses that eat this plant, which contains a toxin, look drunk. Deer in the Nara Koen park in Nara prefecture don't eat this plant, resulting in many Japanese andromeda trees left growing in the park.

2025/3/4

Okame Cherry (Prunus Incamp Cv. Okame)　オカメザクラ（お亀桜）

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A flying crow always catches something and so do I. While on a walk in my neighborhood at the weekend, I found this Okame cherry tree, which was in full bloom! I thought at first it was a Kawazu cherry tree. The Kawazu and the Okame cherry trees resemble each other, i.e., blooming earlier with more pink blossoms than other cherry threes but the Okame cherry petals are a little smaller than Kawazu's.

Spring weather is unstable. It was like spring in Tokyo when I took these photos two days ago but rained and snowed yesterday. Most of these blossoms must have fallen.

The Okame cherry is created by Collingwood Ingram, a British authority on Japanese cherry trees.

2025/3/2

Japanese Cornel (Cornus Officinalis)　サンシュユ（山茱萸）

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Some of these trees still have bright red berries but they're ready to bloom. These are buds of Japanese cornel (Cornus officinalis). A week ago, I found only one bud that was ready to open and yesterday many. Umbels of yellow flowers should appear in a week or so. I need to be back then!

2025/3/2

Oriental False Hawksbeard (Youngia Japonica)　オニタビラコ（鬼田平子）

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Not flowers but fluff caught my eye. They're Oriental false hawksbeard (Youngia japonica). The Oriental false hawksbeard flowers look like dandelions and they both are in the Asteraceae family but in different genera, i.e., the former in the Youngia genus while the latter in the Taraxacum genus.

2025/3/1