Pink Chinese Plum/Japanese Apricot Blossoms (Prunus Mume) 紅梅

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Chinese plum/Japanese apricot trees (Prunus mume) are native to China and came to Japan about 1,500 years ago. Since then, Chinese plum trees have been cherished (e.g., blossoms viewed and fruits eaten) by Japanese people. Today, a symbol of spring in Japan is cherry blossoms but during the Nara period (710 to 794), it was definitely Prunus mume blossoms as supported by the fact that Mannyōshū (i.e., the oldest extant collection of Japanese poetry compiled during the Nara period) includes more poems about plum blossoms than those about cherry blossoms. 

Chinese plum trees generally start to bloom in January but some do so in late December.

2021/2/1

2021/2/1

2025/1/21

Hydrangeas in Winter 冬の紫陽花

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Hydrangeas in June are pretty. Hydrangeas in November season-defy. Hydrangeas in December signify enduring beauty. 

2025/12/20

2025/12/20

2025/12/20

Japanese Mahonia (Mahonia Japonica) 柊南天（ヒイラギナンテン）

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Japanese mahonia (Mahonia japonica) is native to Taiwan and China. It came to Japan at the end of the 17th century and now can be found across Japan. The plant produces bright flowers from autumn to winter, providing an important food source for insects including horseflies. The plant means "increasing love" and, because of the sharply toothed leaves, "intense emotions."

2025/12/21

2025/12/21

Double-Flowered White Camellia Sasanqua (Sasanqua Camellia) 八重咲きの真っ白のサザンカ（山茶花）

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Camellia sasanqua is native to, and can be found across, Japan. So if you're in Tokyo at this time of year, you would see camellia sasanqua trees in many places but when it comes to the double flowered pure white ones, I guess not so often. The pink ones are the most prevalent, followed by red. I've been able to find only this tree so far with pure white blooms in my neighborhood.   

2025/12/18

2025/12/17

2024/12/26

Japanese Viburnum (Viburnum Japonicum) ハクサンボク（白山木）

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The Japanese viburnum (Viburnum japonicum) is native to China, Korea, and Japan. The plant produces flowers usually in April but I saw its flowers for the first time in mid-December. Viburnum japonicum resembles Viburnum dilatatum but the former's leaves are glossy as opposed to the latter's matt leaves. The Japanese viburnum is supposed to fruit in autumn with leaves turning red in winter but this tree still has glossy deep green leaves with flowers that bloom eight months later than usual. 

2025/12/15

Weigela Coraeensis 箱根空木（ハコネウツギ）

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Weigela coraeensis is native to, and can be found across, Japan. The plant produces flowers from May to July. The flowers change from white to pale pink, then to reddish purple, which is why the weigela means "fickleness" in the Japanese floriography.

2024/5/5

2021/5/21

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

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The sasanqua camellia is native to, and can be found across, Japan. It produces flowers from October to December (as opposed to the camellia japonica, which flowers from February to April). The color varies from white to pink and red and so does the layering, single to multi-flowered, and the combination of the pink color and the multi-layering like in these photos makes the blooms look so gorgeous. 

The blooms of 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

2025/12/12

Fatsia Japonica (Glossy-Leaf Paper Plant) 八つ手（ヤツデ）

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The paper plant (Fatsia japonica) is native to, and can be found across, Japan. The plant is called "yatsude" in Japanese, which translates into "eight hands." Despite such a Japanese name, however, the paper plant generally has not eight but NINE lobes (ha-ha). The reason for the confusion is that term eight (8) used to mean many in Japan. Part of the English name "fatsi" also comes from "hachi," which means "eight." The paper plant has another Japanese name "tengu's fan." Tengu is a type of legendary creature in Japanese folklore and is considered a mischievous supernatural being. 

Paper plants produce flowers from October to December after many plants' flowering season, which is why bees and horse flies are often seen hovering over the flowers in these months. 

2025/12/8

2025/12/8

2025/12/8

Autumn Leaves 紅葉

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The best season for autumn leaves in Tokyo is from late November to early December. Red and yellow leaves are beautiful but the mixture of green, yellow, orange, and red leaves against the blue sky creates stunning views, doesn't it? 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. 

2025/11/24

2025/12/5

2025/11/24

Thorny Olive (Elaeagnus Pungens) ナワシログミ（苗代茱萸）

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The thorny olive (Elaeagnus pungens) is native to Japan, China, and Korea and can be found across Japan. The plant flowers from October to November and fruits from May to June. The thorny olive is named "nawashiro gumi" in Japanese, which translates into "rice seedbed Elaeagnus," after it fruiting when people prepare rice seedbeds. I've seen the flowers but not the fruits yet. 

2025/11/30

2025/11/30

Creeping Daisy (Leucanthemum Paludosum) カンシロギク（寒白菊）

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Creeping daisies are native to the western Mediterranean and relatively new to Japan, i.e., imported in the 1960s. Technically they're not chrysanthemums but are in the same family (i.e., Asteraceae) and have a Japanese name "kanshiro giku," which translates into "white chrysanthemum blooming in the cold season." Creeping daisies are generally perennial but in Japan they flower only from December to June and die because they cannot tolerate the extreme heat and high humidity of the Japanese summer. Instead, however, they provide insects with important food sources in winter after almost all flowers are gone. 

2025/11/24

2025/11/24

White Fragrant Olive (Osmanthus Fragrans) 銀木犀（ギンモクセイ）

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Fragrant olive is native to China and can be found across Japan. The plant produces white and orange flowers in autumn and the flowers are fragrant as suggested by the name although the white one's are less fragrant than the orange one's. In Japan, the white one is called "gin mokusei," which translates to "silver fragrant olive" while the orange one "kin mokusei," translating to "golden fragrant olive."  

2025/11/24

2021/11/2

2025/11/24

Green Stink Bug (Glaucias Subpunctatus) アオツヤカメムシ

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I found a green stink bug (Glaucias subpunctatus) on the stamens of a pink edged white sasanqua flower. It's autumn, so naturally many fallen leaves are on flowers and this green bug looked like a leaf at first. Most stink bugs die in winter but this type overwinters in their adult form in Japan.

Stink bugs are increasing in Japan due to warmer winters and increasing food resources (e.g., cedar and cypress cones) in urban areas, resulting in widespread damage to rice, other crops, and other plants across Japan.

 

2025/11/19

2025/11/19

Two Quinces 木瓜と花梨

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These are all Chinese quinces. The green ones are fruits of Chaenomeles speciosa and the yellow ones are Pseudocydonia sinensis. Both are in the Rosaceae family but they're different plants and so is the hardness of their peel. The yellow one's peel (Pseudocydonia sinensis) is harder than the green one's (Chaenomeles speciosa) although jam made from Pseudocydonia sinensis and Chaenomeles speciosa is both "sour" sweet that some find it not sweet enough and a little astringent.

 

2025/11/17

2025/11/17

Princess Flowers (Pleroma Urvilleanum) シコンノボタン（紫紺野牡丹）

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Princess flowers (Pleroma urvilleanum) are native to Latin America and produces beautiful purple flowers in autumn in Japan. Its Japanese name is "shikon nobotan," which translates into "navy purple Malabar melastome" after its color. As the name suggests, not only its petals but also the short and long stamens are all purple. 

2025/11/16

2025/11/16

Purple Woodsorrel (Oxalis Purpurea) フヨウカタバミ（芙蓉酢漿草）

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Purple woodsorrel (Oxalis purpurea) is native to South Africa. The plant came to Japan in the late 18th century and now can be found across Japan. Purple woodsorrel produces pink and white flowers from April to July in general but when warm from November to March, too. Its Japanese name is "fuyou katabami," which translates into "rose marrow woodsorrel" because of its resemblance to rose marrow. 

2025/11/16

2025/11/16

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

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

2025/11/3

2021/11/14

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!

• Pink and white marble colored Japanese apricot
• Red and white marble colored flowering peach 
• Pink and white variegated bush clover

2025/11/1

2023/12/25

Greater Death's Head Hawkmoth (Acherontia Lachesis) クロメンガタスズメ（黒面形天蛾）

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I believe this is a caterpillar of a bee robber or greater death's head hawkmoth (Acherontia lachesis). I've seen many caterpillars and always find it difficult to know what it is but this is an easy one because of its size. 

A larva of the bee robber is as long as 10 cm - 12 cm and changes its color. The caterpillar in the photo is on a stem with its head on top. Its Japanese name is "kuromengata suzume," translating to "black face hawkmoth" after a black (or skull) face on its thorax. Unusually, its English and Japanese names coincide, which makes me want to see its adults.

2025/10/12

2025/10/17