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

英語の後に日本語が続きます。

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

2025/5/4

2025/5/4

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

英語の後に日本語が続きます。

Fruits of a Japanese dogwood tree (Cornus kousa) in my neighborhood have been changing from green to red. Japanese dogwood fruits are edible but not sold (as fruits) in Japan as far as I know. 

The Japanese dogwood is called "evergreen Buddhist monk" in Japanese 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 (3rd and 4th photos).

2024/10/11

2024/10/11

10/2/2024

8/21/2023

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

英語の後に日本語が続きます。

These are flowers of Japanese dogwood (Cornus kousa). I like the flowers but when I saw the tree, I stood mouth agape. There are too many. Japanese dogwood is very similar to flowering dogwood, but Japanese dogwood is native to East Asia (including Japan) while flowering dogwood is native to North America. 

 Japanese dogwood (Cornus kousa)　ヤマボウシ（山法師） 

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

英語の後に日本語が続きます。

These are flowers of Japanese dogwood (Cornus kousa). Japanese dogwood is called "evergreen Buddhist monk" in Japanese 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.

Japanese dogwood (Cornus kousa)　山法師（ヤマボウシ） 

Pink Cousa Dogwood (Cornus Kousa) 紅花山法師（ベニバナヤマボウシ）

Japanese follows English. 英語の後に日本語が続きます。

These are Cornus kousa or more commonly kousa dogwood flowers. I wrote about pale green and white Cornus kousa before and completely forgot about the only pink Cornus dogwood tree in my neighborhood😝! 

In Japanese, Cornus kousa was named "Evergreen Buddhist monk" after Enryakuji temple monks. If you're interested in why, read this post😊! 

Pink cousa dogwood　紅花山法師

Pink Cornus kousa　ベニバナヤマボウシ

Pale Green Kousa Dogwood (Cornus Kousa) 薄緑の山法師（ヤマボウシ）

Japanese follows English. 英語の後に日本語が続きます。

These are Cornus kousa or more commonly kousa dogwood. I wrote about white Cornus kousa last week but these flowers are smaller and the color is not white but pale green, which is so beautiful!! 

Since I learned that Cornus kousa was named after Enryakuji temple monks in Japanese (i.e., "evergreen Buddhist monk"; read this post to know why), I've been looking for a flower that looks like such a monk. Take a look at the 3rd photo! Do the flowers look like Enryakuji temple monks to you😊? 

Kousa dogwood　薄緑の山法師

Cornus kousa　薄緑のヤマボウシ

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

Japanese follows English. 英語の後に日本語が続きます。

These are flowers of Cornus kousa or more commonly known as kousa dogwood. There're dozens of white and red flowering dogwood trees (Cornus florida) but as far as I know, only a few kousa dogwood trees in my neighborhood. I don't know why. 

Kousa dogwood is called "evergreen Buddhist monk" in Japanese 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.

 Kousa dogwood　山法師

Fruits of Kousa Dogwood (Cornus Kousa) 山法師の実

Japanese follows English. 英語の後に日本語が続きます。

These are fruits of Cornus kousa or more commonly kousa dogwood or Japanese dogwood. It's known that white and pink kousa dogwood flowers are beautiful but its fruits are also pretty. The thing is that this year, the rainy season in Japan finished in late June, i.e., nearly one month earlier than usual, it became extremely hot right after the rainy season, like 40°C or 104°F, and now kousa dogwood trees, which usually produce fruits in September, have started to fruit much earlier than usual. What will happen next?    

Kousa dogwood 山法師

Cornus kousa ヤマボウシ

Pink Kousa Dogwood (Cornus Kousa) ピンクの山法師

Japanese follows English. 英語の後に日本語が続きます。

This is Cornus kousa or more commonly kousa dogwood or Japanese dogwood. I've seen cream white Cornus kousa, but had never seen a pink one.

Cornus kousa and Cornus florida look like each other, but the shape of the bracts is different. Cornus kousa's bracts are pointed whereas Cornus florida's are round. Another big difference is that the fruits of Cornus kousa are edible while those of Cornus florida are poisonous.

This Cornus kousa tree is pretty tall, so I was able to take these photos from under the tree. The flowers (or strictly speaking the bracts!) were so translucent (2nd photo), which made me feel alone but happy...

Cornus kousa ヤマボウシ

From under the tree 木の下から

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

Japanese follows English. 英語の後に日本語が続きます。

This is Cornus kousa or more commonly kousa dogwood or Japanese dogwood. As Cornus florida, what look like petals are actually bracts. (A cluster of the tiny green flowers is surrounded by the bracts.) The two types of dogwood look like each other, but the shape of the bracts is different. Cornus kousa's bracts are pointed whereas Cornus florida's are round. Another big difference is that the fruits of Cornus kousa are edible while those of Cornus florida are poisonous.  

 

Cornus kousa 山法師

Japanese dogwood ヤマボウシ

Fruit of Cornus Kousa (Kousa Dogwood) 山法師（ヤマボウシ）の実

Japanese follows English. 英語の後に日本語が続きます。

This tiny red bumpy ball of 1 or 2 cm in diameter is the fruit of cornus kousa or more commonly kousa dogwood. I'd watched it for nearly a month, looking forward to seeing other green fruits turn red. But before that, I found this only red fruit gone the day after taking the first photo. And that reminded me of a funny tragedy😆 a long time ago. 

My mom grew a cactus in the garden of our house. She took good care of it, looking forward to seeing it have small red flowers. One day she found a bud. She was excited, but a few days later she found it gone. She was sad but on the following day, she found another bud. Again she was excited, but finding it gone again on the following day. Such mysterious disappearances happened several times. We talked about it but didn't find any reasonable answers. 

One day, we saw our neighbors, a little sister Hana, who was 3 or 4 years old, and her baby brother Taro, who was still in a diaper, playing together in their garden next to ours. Then, we were astonished to see Taro toddling across the garden and coming straight to the cactus, carefully observing it and picking the buds!! We exchanged glances, bursting into laughter😄 The mystery solved. We put the cactus pod on a high shelf.  

Cornus kousa fruit 山法師の実

Fruit of Cornus Kousa (Kousa Dogwood) 山法師（ヤマボウシ）の実

Japanese follows English. 英語の後に日本語が続きます。

The 1st and 2nd photos are of Cornus kousa or more commonly kousa dogwood fruits. Their skin is bumpy, but the fruit itself is tiny and cute. And the 3rd to 6th photos are of the flowers I took in early May.   

I've belatedly shared these flower photos taken in May for a reason. When taking these flower pictures, I assumed that Cornus kousa and Cornus florida were the same because they were flowering almost at the same time and looked alike. So, I wrote about only Cornus florida flowers and not about Cornus kousa.

Unlike the flowers, however, the fruits of Cornus kousa and Cornus florida are completely different in terms of not only the shape but also edibility. Cornus kousa fruits can be eaten raw or used to make jam or liquor but Cornus florida fruits aren't edible. I look forward to seeing Cornus kousa fruits ripen to red😊!! 

Cornus kousa fruit 山法師の実

Hong Kong Dogwood vs. American Dogwood トキワヤマボウシとハナミズキ

Japanese follows English.　英語の後に日本語が続きます。

I first thought they were American (or flowering) dogwood, but the tag nearby read "Hong Kong dogwood."

Hong Kong dogwood トキワヤマボウシ

It's evergreen 常盤山法師

Hong Kong dogwood is, as the name suggests, native to China, flowering from June to July while American dogwood being native to North America, blooming from April to May.

The shape of bracts (which look like petals but are not) is also different. Hong Kong dogwood's have sharp edges while American dogwood bracts are notch-tipped. (See below!)

White American dogwood
白いハナミズキ

But even so, Hong Kong and American dogwoods are in the same family as their names suggest. It doesn't sound like that, however, when they are called in Japanese....

American dogwood is called "flower, water and tree" in Japanese because the tree needs a lot of water when forming buds in spring and its flowers are conspicuous, while on the other hand, Hong Kong dogwood is called "evergreen 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.

A dogwood flower seems to have four petals, but they are actually not petals, but modified leaves called bracts that surround a cluster of tiny yellow/green flowers.

If you are interested in red and creamy white American dogwood flowers, read "Red, White and Creamy White Flowering Dogwood," too!

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常盤山法師（トキワヤマボウシ）です。最初「ハナミズキかな、それにしては季節外れだな」と思って近寄ったら札に「トキワヤマボウシ」とありました。「なんだ、違う種類か」と思ったらこれまた間違い。

二つは仲間。トキワヤマボウシは中国原産、ハナミズキは北米原産です。そして英語では、

トキワヤマボウシ　Hong Kong dogwood
ハナミズキ　　　　American dogwood / flowering dogwood

英語のほうが分かりやすいじゃないか😑｡｡｡

ヤマボウシ（山法師）の名前は、中央の球形の頭状花序を僧侶（山法師）の頭に、それより下の部分から出ている４枚の白色の総苞片を頭巾に見立て、比叡山延暦寺の「山法師」になぞらえたことに由来しているそうです。

ちなみにヤマボウシもハナミズキも、花びらに見えるのは総苞という葉が変形したもので、中心のコチョコチョとした塊が花だそうです。

赤やクリーム色のハナミズキにご興味があれば、４月に書いた「紅白クリームのハナミズキ」も是非お読みください。

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