Japanese Camellia (Camellia Japonica) ツバキ（椿）

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A fruit of Japanese camellia. Japanese camellia blooms resemble sasanqua camellia blooms very much but their fruits do not. In autumn, this should look like chocolates.

2026/7/15

2023/11/6

Japanese Camellia 'Beauty Blush' ツバキ 'Beauty Blush'

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These are Japanese camellia 'Beauty Blush.' It was my first time to see this type of camellias. The blooms are so small (and many of them were still buds) that I didn't realize they're camellias when photographing them. I was lucky though. A couple of bees with bee pollen came, starting to collect pollen. The bee pollen of one of the bees was so big (1st photo) that I worried if it might fall but that was an unnecessary worry. The bee landed from one flower to another collecting pollen from each flower and flew away.    

2026/4/5

2026/4/5

2026/4/5

Variegated Japanese Camellia (Camellia Japonica) 斑入り椿

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There are more than 250 types of Japanese camellias and more than a thousand for camellias, i.e., Japanese camellias and sasanqua camellias. This variegated one is one of them. Variegated camellias are caused by viral infections, genetic mutations, or other reasons and have been appreciated and improved in Japan as an "oddity" since the Edo period (1603-1867). 

2026/3/21

2026/3/21

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

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Japanese camellia (Camellia japonica) has many cultivars and this is one of them, "thousand flowered" Japanese camellias. You don't see stamens because their stamens (and pistils) have disappeared or degenerated, or changed into petals.  

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? The question occurred to me because the stamens of Japanese camellias (more specifically, the filament part) connect with petals, which allows their 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 7th 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.  

2026/3/21

2026/3/21

2026/3/8

2026/1/17

2026/3/8

Variegated Camellias 斑入り椿

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You would find Japanese camellias here and there in Tokyo (and across Japan) but not so often when it comes to variegated blooms. 

Interestingly, some camellia trees have blooms of different colors, e.g., deep pink, pale pink, and variegated, depending on the amount of anthocyanins. The tree in the 1st and 2nd photos has only one variegated bloom while the tree in the 5th photo has both pink and variegated blooms. Nature always fascinates me!   

Japanese camellias have been appreciated since at least the 8th century in Japan and cultivated for a long time across Japan (and in other countries, too). As a result, there currently exist about 250 types of Japanese camellias worldwide.  

2026/3/6

2026/3/6

薄ピンクのツバキ

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I've seen Japanese camellia (Camellia japonica) blooms many times but it's my first time to see such beautiful pale pink blooms with no spots. While I was photographing them, a horsefly came, starting to have breakfast (2nd and 3rd photos). 

2026/2/23

2026/2/23

White Japanese Camellia 白椿

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In winter, you would see sasanqua camellias in many places in Tokyo. You would also find red Japanese camellias quite often, but not white Japanese camellias. The flowering season of Japanese camellia (Camellia japonica) is from December to April, the end of which overlaps with the beginning of the cherry blossom season. White Japanese camellias mean "perfection," "admiration," and "lovely." 

2025/2/9

2025/2/9

Plants in the Snow 雪の日の花たち

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It's snowing in Central Tokyo, which is unusual and fun!  

2026/2/8 Weeping Japanese apricot 枝垂れ梅

2026/2/8

2026/2/8 Sasanqua camellia 山茶花

2026/2/8 Wintersweet 蝋梅

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

2026/1/24

2026/1/24

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

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

Single-Flowered White Sasanqua Camellia 一重の白い山茶花

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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. The blooms in this post are single-flowered white (pink-edged) and you would relatively easily run into such blooms in Tokyo in not a few places. Single flowered camellia sasanquas may be less gorgeous but are as beautiful as the double flowered ones. 

2025/12/1

2025/12/1

2025/12/1

2025/11/8

2024/11/9

2024/11/9

2024/11/9

2023/12/17

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山茶花は日本原産。秋から冬になるとあちこちで見られます。白、ピンク、赤の花が一重や八重で咲き、色も形も様々です。この記事の山茶花は一重咲きで、八重咲きと比べると地味目ですが、深い緑の中に浮かび上がる白には幽玄の美しさを感じます。

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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

Camellia Fruits (Camellia Japonica and Camellia Sasanqua) 椿と山茶花の実

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Camellia trees in my neighborhood have started fruit and one of the differences between the Camellia japonica and the Camellia sasanqua is the fruit. 

Japanese people love Camellia so much that they talk a lot about how to distinguish between "japonica" and "sasanqua." One way to tell is to look at the size and skin of their fruits. Also, a Camellia japonica fruit is bigger (i.e., about 5 cm in diameter) with a glossy skin while a Camellia sasanqua one is about 3 cm and hairy.

The seeds of both Camellia fruits can produce oil (i.e., tea seed oil), which has been used for skin and hair in Japan for a long time. How long? The Shoku Nihongi, i.e., an imperially-commissioned Japanese history text, says that Japan gave the oil to an ambassador sent from Balhae, a multi-ethnic kingdom in Manchuria, the Korean Peninsula and the Russian Far East, in 777. Wow!

Camellia japonica and sasanqua are both the prefectural/city/town flower of many prefectures and municipalities in Japan, and the Camellia japonica is surprisingly the Alabama state flower.

If you're interested in another (easy!) way to tell the Camellia japonica from the Camellia sasanqua, read THIS post, too!!  

2025/7/10 Camellia japonica

2021/8/5 Camellia JAPONICA, no hair, 5 cm in diameter
椿の実はツルツルで直径5センチ

Variegated Camellia and White Camellia (Camellia Japonica) 斑入り椿と白椿

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The first photo is of a white and pink variegated Japanese camellia (Camellia japonica). Pink or red Japanese camellias are often seen and the white ones sometimes but the variegated ones rarely. The stark contrast between the white and pink petals, the long yellow stamens and the deep green leaves is striking. The second and subsequent photos are of white camellias. 

2025/1/30

Japanese Camellia Meant Beheading😱 for Samurai 落椿（落ちツバキ）

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What do you see in the first picture? Just a camellia on the ground? That's not wrong, but samurai or members of the Japanese warrior caste were reminded of a beheaded head, and that's why Japanese camellias were unpopular among, and considered ominous by, them.

I took the third and subsequent photos a few years ago at Yushima Seidō or Yushima Sacred Hall, a Confucian temple in Tokyo established in 1690 by Tsunayoshi Tokugawa, the fifth shōgun during the Edo period (1603 to 1868). Later on, Shōhei-zaka Gakumonjo, one of the then most important educational institutions, was also founded there.

2025/1/24

2025/1/24

Red Japanese Camellias (Camellia Japonica) 赤いツバキ（椿）

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A Japanese camellia tree in my neighborhood has produced one flower to another, creating the beautiful contrast between the red blooms surrounded by the deep green leaves against the blue sky (2nd photo). I also found something. Small bugs were on the stamens on several blooms, basking in the sun. 

2025/1/14

2025/1/14

Double Flowered Pink Japanese Camellia (Camelia Japonica) ピンクの八重つばき（八重椿）

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I thought this was a camellia sasanqua until yesterday but I may be wrong. The more I looked at this, the more it looked like a Japanese camellia because (i) the petals are thicker than those of a camellia sasanqua; (ii) the leaves are bigger than those of sasanquas; and (iii) the leaves are less toothed than sasanquas'. The thing is I couldn't tell for sure because there was no flower on the ground yet, which is the easiest way to tell which is which. I need to wait for a while to see how the flower dies. 

The Japanese camellia was unpopular in the Edo (samurai) period among samurai because the flower falling off in its entirety (unlike a sasanqua flower, which dies with petals falling off one by one) reminded samurai of beheaded human heads. 

2025/1/9

2025/1/9

Japanese Camellia (Camellia Japonica) ツバキ（椿）

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I've been enjoying beautiful camellia sasanquas since last year and when seeing them, I've always thought of another camellia, i.e., Japanese camellia. Can you tell which is which? 

Camellia sasanquas bloom from November to March while Japanese camellias flower from January to April. There's also another difference (as I've written many times), i.e., how a flower dies. A sasanqua flower dies with petals falling off one by one whereas a Japanese camellia flower falls off in its entirety. Now, I can tell which is which but until a few years ago I couldn't. Learning enables you to appreciate things around you more deeply. 

2025/1/6

2025/1/6