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

英語の後に日本語が続きます。

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

Pink, White, and Pink/White Plum Blossoms (Prunus Mume) 紅白＆源平咲きの梅

英語の後に日本語が続きます。

A Japanese apricot tree, which had almost no flowers last week, has come into bloom with deep pink blossoms, creating the beautiful contrast against the white blooms and the blue sky.    

In Japan, plum blossoms are less popular, attracting less attention than cherry blossoms, but during the Nara period (from 710 to 794), the other way round. People enjoyed viewing not cherry but plum blossoms while eating, drinking, and composing waka or Japanese poems under the trees in spring.

Some plum trees produce white and pink blossoms on the same tree. If you're interested in the mechanism, read this post! 

2025/2/15

2025/2/15

2025/2/15

2025/2/15

Two Pink Plum Blossoms on a White Plum Tree 源平咲きの梅

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

This is a Japanese plum tree (Prunus mume) with a few pink flowers. I said a few because the rest are all white. Scientifically, there's no white plum tree. Red plum trees have white flowers when they cannot produce enough anthocyanins to make flowers red (or pink). I remember this tree having more pink flowers last year, so I've been waiting for it to bloom but this year, the tree seems to have been able to produce enough anthocyanins to have only a couple of pink flowers...

Pink plum blossoms are gorgeous but these pink ones among white blossoms are not that bad, are they? 

  

White and pink plum blossoms on a tree　源平咲きの梅

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近所の梅です。去年は確か紅梅をつけていたので楽しみにしていたのですが、今年は紅梅は2、3個。十分なアントシアニンを作れなかったようです。紅梅は白梅より豪華ですが、こんな風に白梅に囲まれたピンクもなかなかでは。

ちなみに白梅の木は存在しないんです。ご興味ある方はこちらのサイトをどうぞ！

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