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

Pink/Purple Mountain Hydrangea　ピンク・紫のヤマアジサイ（山紫陽花）

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Hydrangeas are pleasing with their colors and these pink and purple mountain hydrangeas in particular because the blooms have not only beautiful sepals (sterile flowers) but also pretty petals (fertile flowers). The 2nd photo is a close up of the center part consisting of real (fertile) flowers, which are so tiny and so beautiful!

2025/5/15

Hydrangea Serrata Var. 'Kurenai'　紅山紫陽花（クレナイヤマアジサイ）

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A kurenai hydrangea (Hydrangea serrata var. 'Kurenai') started to bud in early May and at that time the sepals (not petals!) were white, so I wasn't certain if they would really turn red as suggested by the name kurenai, which means red, until actually seeing the sepals tinged with pink in mid-May (1st to 3rd photos). If you still can't believe that, see the 5th and subsequent photos of the blooms after the color change last year. The last photo is of a dying one. Surprisingly, the sepals are much redder than those in full bloom.

2025/5/15

Mushrooms　キノコ

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It was amazing to find not one or two but five types of mushrooms just in a day. These mushrooms hadn't existed a few days earlier, so it means that they've just popped up for the past couple of days, during which it had rained. They resemble edible mushrooms, such as shiitake (1st and 2nd photos) and shimeji (last two photos) and that's why the ministry of agriculture, forestry, and fishery has a website on poisonous mushrooms in Japan (in Japanese only).

Flowering Grass (Freesia Laxa)　ヒメヒオウギ（姫檜扇）

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These are freesia laxa or flowering grass. Freesia laxa is originally an ornamental plant, but now grows everywhere in Japan like weeds. The reddish orange color first caught my eye, which led to finding white ones. Freesia laxa is pretty and hardy as other pretty weeds, such as wood sorrels, speedwells, and cucumber herbs. Pretty and hardy can coexist!

2025/5/12

Mountain Laurel (Kalmia Latifolia)　カルミア（亜米利加石楠花、アメリカシャクナゲ）

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Mountain laurels (Kalmia latifolia) are now in full bloom. The flowers look like parasols and the buds konpeito, i.e., tiny star-shaped Japanese sugar candies, which are Pokémon Nebby's favorite food.

Konpeito was imported from Portugal to Japan in the 16th century together with the name "confeito" in Portuguese, meaning sugar candy. If you haven't seen the candy, click here (Wikipedia). See? The buds of mountain laurel look exactly like konpeito, don't they?

Despite such lovely appearance, however, all the parts of Kalmia are poisonous especially for sheep as suggested by its other common names "lamb-kill," "calf-kill," "kill-kid," and "sheep-poison."

2025/5/12

False Strawberry (Potentilla Hebiichigo Yonek. et H.Ohashi)　ヘビイチゴ（蛇苺）

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These are false strawberries (Potentilla hebiichigo Yonek. et H.Ohashi). False strawberries are edible (and look delicious) but tasteless and that's why in Japan they're called snake strawberries, i.e., strawberries for snakes. Potentilla hebiichigo Yonek. et H.Ohashi resembles Potentilla indica very much but there's a clear difference, i.e., the receptacle of Potentilla hebiichigo is white while that of Potentilla indica is red and glossy. False strawberries produce yellow flowers from April to May in Japan but I was able to find only a few (2nd photo). The false strawberry in the third photo is covered by sepals, which is also cute!

2025/5/13

2025/5/10

Galls on Cherry Leaves😱　サクラの葉の虫こぶ😱

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What do you see in these photos? I saw caterpillars when seeing them for the first time but they are not caterpillars. They're Tuberocephalus tsengi or galls, which contain many many aphids😱!! So, don't even think about looking inside!

2025/5/10

Bottlebrush (Callistemon)　ブラシノキ（金宝樹）

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Names and natures do often agree and so do bottlebrush (Callistemon) trees. The trees in my neighborhood, which started to bloom a week ago, are now in full bloom!

I still remember when I saw them for the first time. I was so surprised that I climbed a wall surrounding the tree to take their close-up photos without realizing how dangerous it could be. So reckless, but I couldn't resist. Luckily, I wasn't hurt!

2025/5/13

Spiderwort　ムラサキツユクサ（紫露草）

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They're spiderworts (Tradescantia). The beautiful color contrast between the petals and stamens caught my eye, which is understandable. Purple and yellow are complementary colors, creating the strongest contrast.

Spiderworts are native to North America, one of many plants coming to Japan from western countries at the beginning of the Meiji era (1868 to 1912). The purple of these spiderworts seems paler than last year but they may change color during the flowering period from May to October.

2025/5/12

Citrus Natsudaidai　夏みかん

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There're citrus natsunatsudaidai trees in my neighborhood. Some still have fruits (although I've never found fallen ones on the ground) while others have no fruits but flowers in full bloom instead. Citrus natsudaidai is called in Japanese "natsu mikan," which translates into "summer orange," because the fruits ripe in autumn but stay on the tree and are usually eaten in summer the following year. This tree has no fruits but flowers and bees, one of which was hovering over the flowers for enough time to take these photos.

2025/5/10

Japanese Water Iris (Iris Ensata)　ハナショウブ（花菖蒲）

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This is a Japanese water iris (Iris ensata). The contrast between deep purple and yellow is so beautiful. The irises grow in wet land and flower in June and therefore its name "hana shoubu" is used as a kigo (i.e., a word or phrase associated with a particular season used in haiku) that represents early June to early July. Japanese water irises produce flowers of more than 500 colors.

Korean Mulberry (Morus Australis)　ヤマグワ（山桑）

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A Korean mulberry tree (Morus australis) nearby has started to fruit. The fruits are still green but beautiful enough to catch my eye with hairy stigmas, which is a characteristic of Korean mulberry. Because of their hairy stigmas, Korean mulberries do not seem edible but they are and said to be tastier than white mulberries (Morus alba) in Japan. Korean mulberry leaves are oval- or glove-shaped with up to five lobes. In general, mulberries are dioecious, which means the tree is female.

2025/5/10

A Beautiful Melody　水滴の音符♬

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What do you see? I see a beautiful melody.

Hamilton's Spindletree (Euonymus Hamiltonianus)　マユミ（檀）

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Some plants bring you happiness through the year and Hamilton's spindletree (Euonymus hamiltonianus) is one of them. It produces not only pretty flowers (1st and 2nd photos) but also beautiful four-lobed fruit capsules turning from green in August to pink in January the following year. See the photos below for the color change!

A good thing about photographing plants is to make people more talkative. When I was photographing the fruits in September, two women approached me asking what they were. I said they were the fruits of Hamilton's spindletree but the women insisted they couldn't be fruits but buds to flower soon. It was fun talking with strangers about little things.

2025/5/9

Small-Leaf Spiderwort (Tradescantia Fluminensis)　トキワツユクサ（常盤露草）

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The beautiful contrast between the white petals and the deep green leaves caught my eye. They're small-leaf spiderwort (Tradescantia fluminensis). Oops, I forgot to say something. The six yellow anthers also play an important role, making the color contrast more visible.

2025/5/9

2024/5/11

Daylily (Hemerocallis)　ヘメロカリス

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They're daylilies (Hemerocallis). Those in the 1st and 2nd photos have pointed petals while those in the 3rd and 4th photos round petals but both are daylilies. There're various types of daylilies in terms of not only the petal shape but also the color.

Daylilies are called "wasure gusa" in Japanese, which translates into "plant to forget things," meaning that you can forget bad things if you carry them. On the other hand, forget-me-nots are "wasurena gusa" in Japanese." Can you see the difference? It's the "na" part, i.e., "wasureNA gusa." Needless to say, their flower meanings are completely different in Japan. Forget-me-nots represents true love whereas daylilies flirtation and forgotten love.

2025/5/8

2025/5/9

Corn Speedwell (Veronica Arvensis)　タチイヌノフグリ（立犬の殖栗）

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Like annual blue-eyed grass, these also open only during the day. They're corn speedwells (Veronica arvensis). The flowers are so tiny, just 3 to 5 mm in diameter! (See the last photo.! Corn speedwells usually have blue flowers but I found a pink one unintendedly. (Can you see it in the 3rd photo?)

The speedwell brothers (below) have terrible but funny Japanese names, which were given by Dr. Tomitaro Makino, a late Japanese botanist:

Veronica polita (grey field-speedwell) named "inu no fuguri," which translates to "dog's balls," after the resemblance of its fruit shape to dog's balls.
Veronica persica (Persian speedwell) named "ooinu no fuguri," which translates to "large dog's balls" after its larger flowers than those of grey field-speedwell.
Veronica arvensis (corn speedwell) named "tachi inu no fuguri," which translates to "standing dog's balls" after its stems standing upright.

2025/5/7

Flowers of Camphor Tree (Camphora Officinarum)　楠（クスノキ）

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I observed these tiny flowers of a tree, always wondering what the tree was but couldn't find out. And today, I found another tree with a label "Camphor tree (Camphora officinarum)." Wow! I didn't know camphor trees could produce such pretty flowers.

The biggest camphor tree in Japan is in Kamou town, Aira city, Kagoshima prefecture. Its trunk girth is 24.2m and the tree has been designated as a natural monument.

Early May 2025

Japanese Dogwood (Cornus Kousa)　ヤマボウシ（山法師）

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I wasn't able to enjoy flowering dogwood much this year but instead found this Japanese dogwood tree (Cornus kousa), which was so gorgeous, especially from under the tree (3rd photo). I thought at first that the tree was a flowering dogwood because the bracts are not pointed, which is a key difference between flowering and Japanese dogwoods, but I found on the internet that Japanese dogwood trees can have rounded bracts, so I determined that it was a Japanese dogwood tree.

Japanese dogwood is called "yama boushi" in Japanese, which translates to "Buddhist monk" by comparing the head (or capitulum) of the flower to the head of a monk of the Hieizan (Mt. Hiei) Enryakuji temple and the four bracts surrounding the capitulum to his hood.

2025/5/4

Annual Blue-Eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium Rosulatum)　ニワゼキショウ（庭石菖）

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Some flowers open only during the day, so although I walk every morning in the area where there are so many growing, I didn't notice their presence as they're like in the 4th photo in the morning. They're annual blue-eyed grasses (Sisyrinchium rosulatum). So small, 1 cm in diameter, but their striped receptacle is so beautiful.

2025/5/5

Clasping Venus' Looking-Glass (Triodanis Perfoliata)　キキョウソウ（桔梗草）

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This is Triodanis perfoliata or more commonly known as clasping Venus' looking-glass growing on roadsides. There're many of them growing but only this one had flowers this morning.

2025/5/5

Blue Hydrangea Serrata (Tea of Heaven "Mikata-Yae")　美方八重（ミカタヤエ）

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Mikata-yae hydrangeas (Hydrangea serrata (Thunb. ex Murr.) Ser. "Mikata-yae") in my neighborhood have started to bud! The buds look like green stars and interestingly, many of the leaves had small black caterpillars resting on them like the one in the 3rd photo. So cute!

Mikata-yae hydrangeas are said to be one of the most beautiful blue hydrangeas. The hydrangea season has just started!

2025/5/9

2025/5/5

2025/5/1

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