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

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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

Cucumber Herb (Trigonotis Peduncularis)　胡瓜草（キュウリグサ）

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Small plants have waken up from winter sleep. These are cucumber herbs (Trigonotis peduncularis). The flowers are so tiny, 0.2 - 0.3 cm in diameter. Sadly, however, they'll be removed soon because of growing in a wrong place, i.e., a place for more fancy flowers to "entertain" pedestrians. No worries, though. Cucumber herbs are small but so hardy that I'm sure I can see them soon somewhere else.

2025/2/27

Mimosa　ミモザ

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How silly of me! I pass under this tree every day and didn't notice such bright yellow blooms at all. They're mimosa. I've heard of the plant many times but (I believe) I saw them in person for the first time. The season in Japan has changed suddenly from winter to spring for the last week. Mimosa seems to welcome the advent of spring.

2025/2/25

Red Japanese Witch-Hazel (Hamamelis Japonica F. Incarnata)　アカバナマンサク（赤花万作）

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When writing about Japanese witch-hazel (which was yellow) yesterday, I learned that the plant produces red flowers and surprisingly, today, I found them! This made me do further research, leading to finding that there is another genus in the witch-hazel family which produces white flowers from April to May. I've got to find them!

2025/2/24

Japanese Witch-Hazel (Hamamelis Japonica)　マンサク（満作）

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These are Japanese witch-hazel flowers (Hamamelis japonica). Their (unique) string shape and color contrast between the bright yellow (i.e., petals) and the red (i.e., sepals) caught my eye. Japanese witch-hazel signifies the return of happiness in Japan.

2026/2/23

Weeping Plum Blossoms　しだれ梅

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The weeping Japanese apricot tree in my neighborhood which started to bloom about a month ago (4th photo) is now in full bloom! Needless to say, plum blossoms are beautiful but weeping ones are spectacular.

Plants make people more talkative. A Hamilton's spindletre tree did so and a plum tree did so, too. And thanks to that, I learned about the tree and was able to take these pictures.

The seventh and subsequent photos were taken two years ago in Ueno, Tokyo. They were taken on a late afternoon when the Moon started rising in the sky.

2025/2/22

Rose-Gold Pussy Willow (Salix Gracilistyla)　ネコヤナギ（猫柳）

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I've heard of the plant many times but actually saw one for the first time. This is a rose-gold pussy willow (Salix gracilistyla) with blossoms, which are so cute! The buds are covered and protected before opening by reddish bud scales like in the 2nd photo. But it's worth protecting. The fluffy blossoms are so adorable.

The rose-gold pussy willow is called "neko yanagi" in Japanese, meaning "cat🐈 willow," showing unusually the same perception between English and Japanese speakers.

2025/2/19

2025/2/21

Lady's Smock (Cardamine Pratensis)　ハナタネツケバナ（花種漬花）

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I've been looking down recently while on a morning walk to find speedwells and shaggy soldiers but in vain. Instead, I've found these tiny flowers surrounded by the deep green leaves. I guess they're lady's smocks (Cardamine pratensis) because of their cupped shape like smocks. So cute, so adorable, but so difficult to take photos of when windy.

2025/2/20

"Thousand-Flowered" Pink, Red, and White Japanese Camellias　千重咲きのピンク、赤、白の椿

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Following the white and red ones, I'm writing today about maybe the last ones, "thousand flowered" PINK Japanese camellias. As the other colors, the pink ones do not show their prominent stamens, either, as their stamens (and pistils) have disappeared or degenerated, or changed into petals. So, here is a question for you. Which color do you like the most? Me? Can't decide.

By the way, the fact that these camellias have no stamens gave rise to one question for me, i.e. how a thousand flowered camellia dies. Will it fall off in its entirety like other usual Japanese camellias even though it has no stamens, which (more specifically, the filament part) connects with petals, allowing its unique way of dying as opposed to sasanqua camellias, which die with petals falling off one by one without such connection. The answer is in the 6th photo. Even without stamens, a thousand flowered Japanese camellia falls off in its entirety. A Japanese camellia IS a Japanese camellia whether it has stamens or not.

2025/2/19