The queen of the alpine plants Dicentra peregrina “komakusa 駒草”
The pretty flowers of alpine plants heal the hearts of climbers. I want them to stay there forever. However, there are bad people who steal and take them. Dicentra peregrina , which is called as the queen of alpine plants…
Alpine Zone in Japan; where it is so cold that no tree can grow.
The trees that grow in the coldest places are coniferous trees such as firs and spruces, which can widely be seen in extremely cold regions such as Siberia and Canada. Further north, trees cannot grow and lichens form a tundra…
A strange name of fungi – Monkey’s stool?
Sometimes we can find strange names in books on natural science. Fungi belonging to the family Polyporaceae are called “monkey’s stool=サルノコシカケ saru-no-koshikake” in Japan. This summer, I went to a mountain in the inner part of Wakayama prefecture to investigate insects….
Korean pine
When I was walking at an altitude of about 1000m in the Japanese Alps, I found a pine cone that I had never seen before. Later I found that this is the Korean pine. The scientific name is Pinus koraiensis….
Ginkgo (2) Giant Trees
This is the Part 2 of the previous story about ginkgo. Click here to view the Part 1. Ginkgo is a tree brought from China in the 15th century, but you can also see quite large trees. The one I…
Ginkgo (1)
In Japan, this tree is often planted anywhere including urban parks. The tree of Tokyo is this. We can see a similar design at the Metropolitan traffic. I used to think it was a ginkgo leaf. But I heard that…
A strange needle-leaf tree, nagi
Trees can usually be divided into broad-leaf and needle-leaf. The tree in this photo looks like a broad-leaf , but it is actually a needle-leaf. Broad-leaf trees usually have a leaf with a central vein, but this leaf does not. Nagi, the scientific…
Animals in shrines as messengers from the god
Shrines are facilities of the Shinto religion. Based on the worship of nature, every shrine has a kind of “God’s messenger” animal. The ancients believed that the harvest and natural disasters were caused by the power of the god. The…
The largest lake in Japan and the coastal plants and insects there
Lake Biwa is the largest in Japan. It is located in Shiga prefecture. Since there is always a large amount of water, Osaka City, which is located downstream of the river that flows out of Lake Biwa, never run out…
Why don’t you experience the ancient forest in Nara
The power of human development is enormous and has had a negative impact on the natural environment throughout the world. In Japan, people originally lived hunting in the forest, then thousands of years ago they settled down and began cultivating…
Recent Comments