False Daphne (Daphniphyllum Macropodum) ユズリハ（楪）

英語の後に日本語が続きます。

False daphne (Daphniphyllum macropodum) is native to Japan, Southern Korea, China, Malaysia, and Indonesia. The tree produces clusters of tiny flowers from April to June and fruits from June to December, which turn black in October and November.  

Daphniphyllum macropodum's Japanese name is "yuzuriha," which translates into "giving/offering leaf," after the fact that older leaves drop in spring after the shrub starts to grow new leaves, which looks like older leaves offering their places to younger ones. Survivors of 2011 Japan Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami were reported to have helped each other by giving and offering food and water to each other. Some may find it naïve and I'm not sure I can be so generous in similar circumstances but such a spirit of caring, sharing, and helping each other may be needed most now. 

2026/5/7

Fertile Shoot of Field Horsetail (Equisetum Arvense) ツクシ（土筆）

英語の後に日本語が続きます。

These are fertile shoots of field horsetail (Equisetum arvense). I didn't expect them to grow in such a busy place close to a waste collection site. (You can see blue plastic bags piled up in the 1st photo.) I've seen fertile shoots of field horsetails many times but only in the field. 

They also made me realize that I didn't know what they were at all, i.e., that they're shoots; that they're reproductive stems; and that they're surrounded by their green relatives, i.e., sterile shoots. Such ignorance, however, may not be necessarily all my fault. In Japan, a fertile shoot of field horsetail is called tsukushi, considered (by many) as a different plant from field horsetail, which is called sugina. There's even a children's song in Japan entitled "Whose child is a fertile shoot? It's field horsetail's." 

2025/4/9

2025/4/9