Don't forget to look down

Sakura (cherry blossoms) command our attention when they are in bloom, and with good reason: they are stunning. The delicate flowers look beautiful close up, viewed from afar they blanket the landscape in fluffy pale pink masses of loveliness, and they are gorgeous when they drop from their branches petal by petal and float through the air. But as pretty as they are, it's a shame that sakura hog all the attention, because a whole host of wildflowers come into bloom at the same time. And although none of them may have the magic of cherry blossoms, each is beautiful in its own way.

So the next time you're out admiring the cherry blossoms, don't forget to look down. Here are some of the flowers you might see.

花大根 (ハナダイコン, hana daikon)
Orychophragmus violaceus
No common English name

Also known as 紫花菜 (ムラサキハナナ, murasaki hana-na), 諸葛菜 (ショカッサイ, shokassai) and other names, this is a very common flower throughout Japan, often seen along roads or train tracks. I imagine that the view of the flowers, even as nothing more than a purple blur rushing by, has brightened many a commuter's day.

蛇苺 (ヘビイチゴ, hebi-ichigo)
Duchesnea chrysantha
False strawberry, Indian strawberry, mock strawberry

As its names imply, hebi-ichigo is a strawberry impersonator, and a very convincing one. Its yellow flowers (the colour is a tip-off, as true strawberry flowers have white or pale pink petals) can be seen in the spring and the summer, with the centres eventually turning into a small red berry that looks delicious. The fruit is perfectly safe to eat, but there isn't much reason to do so as it is virtually flavourless.

烏野豌豆 (カラスノエンドウ, karasu no endou)
Vicia sativa
Common vetch

One of the prettiest weeds you'll find, karasu no endou (literally "crow's pea) looks like a miniature sweet pea. Although considered by many to be a weed, it a useful plant, grown for horse and cattle fodder. It is also edible by humans, widely consumed in ancient times and still eaten here in Japan, where the wild shoots and young seed pods are gathered and eaten as sansai (wild vegetable), most often sauteed or fried as tempura (both shown here).

花韮 (ハナニラ, hananira)
Ipheion uniflorum
Spring starflower

This pretty little flower is native to South America but naturalized in Japan. The stem and leaves give off a strong nira (garlic chive) smell when crushed, hence the name hananira (literally "garlic chive flower").

Unidentified fiddleheads

I know next to nothing about ferns so have no idea what these are (I do know that they are not warabi or zenmai, two of the edible types of ferns prized in Japan). A little bit of research online has shown that ferns are notoriously difficult to identify, so I may never find out what these are unless a kind and knowledgeable reader can help out. It also seems that "fiddlehead" is more of a culinary term, while scientists use the word "crozier" or "young frond". I think.

踊り子草 (オドリコソウ, odoriko-sou)
Lamium album var. barbatum
White dead nettle, bee nettle

I've noticed this plant for years, often confusing it with shiso (a culinary herb that can sometimes be found growing wild) due to their similar leaves. When seen in the spring, however, the flowers give it away as another species, which saves me from having to rub the leaves and be disappointed at the lack of shiso fragrance. But I've just found out that my disappointment has been unwarranted, as odoriko-sou is an edible plant. The shoots and young leaves are eaten as sansai, as are the flowers, which are most often prepared as tempura to preserve their pretty shape and sweet nectar. Odoriko-sou is also used in traditional medicine, both in Japan and its native Europe.

連銭草 (カキドウシ, kakidoushi)
Glechoma hederacea var. grandis
Ground ivy, catsfoot, creeping charlie

Kakidoushi is native to Europe, where it was once prized as a medicinal herb and an ingredient in beer (it added flavour and clarified cloudy brews in the days before hops were used). It has been naturalized in many parts of the world and is regarded in North America, despite the pretty little flowers, as an undesirable weed. It is still used in medicine in Japan (the plant is usually referred to as rensensou when used as a medicinal herb), most often as a tea used for reducing blood sugar and weight loss.

雪柳 (ユキヤナギ, yukiyanagi)
Spiraea thunbergii
Baby's breath spirea

Native to Japan and China, yukiyanagi can be found both as a wild plant and as a landscape shrub. The Japanese name literally means "snow willow", because of the snowy white flowers and the way the drooping branches resemble the weeping willow.

紫華鬘 (ムラサキケマン, murasaki-keman)
Corydalis incisa
No common English name

Murasaki-keman is named after the keman, a decoration found at Buddhist temples featuring intricate dangling chains that the flowers are thought to resemble (this makes a little more sense with kikeman, the yellow version).

山吹 (ヤマブキ, yamabuki)
Kerria japonica
Japanese yellow rose, kerria rose, yellow rose, Japanese kerria

Yamabuki is native to China and Japan but it's more likely, at least in Tokyo, to find it as an ornamental shrub. The Japanese name means "mountain spray", and the flower is much referred to in Japanese writing and art.

者莪 (シャガ, shaga)
Iris japonica
Fringed iris, Japanese iris

This small member of the iris family is rather unassuming, at least until you get up close and discover the delicate fringe and the pretty purple and yellow patterns on the petals. It originally came from China but has been naturalized in Japan, where it is found in shady areas, both as a cultivated and a wild plant.

常盤はぜ (トキワハゼ, tokiwahaze)
Mazus pumilus
Japanese mazus

These tiny little flowers can be seen from spring through to fall, and as lovely as they are they seem under-appreciated, as I can find very little information on them.

草苺 (くさいちご, kusa-ichigo), 野苺 (ノイチゴ, no-ichigo), 山苺 (ヤマイチゴ, yama-ichigo)
Rubus hirsutus
No common English name

This wild raspberry goes by a few different names, all of them misidentifying the fruit as a strawberry. Which is understandable as raspberries are called 木苺 (キイチゴ, ki-ichigo, literally "shrub strawberry"), but this unfortunately leads to a bit of confusion and the names seem to be used interchangeably for both wild strawberries and wild raspberries. But make no mistake, this flower will soon turn into a large reddish-orange raspberry that has a mild but delicious flavour and is as sought after by people as it is by birds and other animals.

芹葉飛燕草 (セリバヒエンソウ, seribahi-ensou)
Delphinium anthriscifolium
No common English name

This is another pretty flower with scanty information available. It was brought to Japan from China in the Meiji era (1868 to 1912) and I'll need to improve my Japanese if I want to know why.

繁縷 (ハコベ, hakobe)
Stellaria media
Common chickweed, winterweed

I tend not to notice these tiny flowers unless I'm already down on the ground looking at something else, but I'm always glad to see them as they're cute up close. Hakobe is one of the haru no nanakusa (seven herbs of spring), eaten after New Year's in okayu (rice porridge). (A bit off-topic, but I've just noticed that both the Japanese and English Wikipedia entries on nanakusa use my pictures. You'd think they could find something better.)

蔓日々草 (ツルニチニチソウ, tsuru-nichinichi-sou)
Vinca major
Large periwinkle, greater periwinkle, blue periwinkle

This pretty flower was introduced from Europe as an ornamental and is still most often seen in gardens, but it can occasionally be found growing in the wild.

丸葉菫 (マルバスミレ, maruba-sumire)
Viola keiskei
No common English name

One of the many varieties of sumire (violets) found in Japan.

立壷菫 (タチツボスミレ, tachitsubo-sumire)
Viola grypoceras A. Gray
No common English name

Another variety of violet, tachitsubo-sumire is one of the most common, and itself has a few variations (which my skills are not up to distinguishing).

大甘菜 (オオアマナ, oo-amana), オーニソガラム (oonisogaramu)
Ornithogalum umbellatum
Star-of-Bethleham, grass lilly, sleepydick

Native to Eurasia and northwest Africa, this plant has naturalized in much of Japan and is widely found in sunny fields. Considered in the west to be a medicinal herb and still used in holistic healing, it has edible bulbs that resemble garlic in appearance but not in smell or flavour. I'm guessing it's not very tasty as it's considered a famine food, only eaten when nothing else is available. The pretty flowers last just a few days and close up when night falls.　

春竜胆 (ハルリンドウ, haru-rindou)
Gentiana thunbergii
No common English name

This pretty blue flower can be found in sunny fields throughout most of Japan.

百合山葵 (ユリワサビ, yuri-wasabi)
Wasabia tenuis
No common English name

Yuri-wasabi is the wild version of wasabi, the plant grown for its spicy root which lends its flavour to sushi and other foods. Both wasabi and yuri-wasabi have edible leaves, with a similar wasabi-like flavour. The similarities end at ground level though, as yuri-wasabi has lilly-like bulbs (hence the Japanese name, which means "lilly wasabi") rather than the spicy rhizome of cultivated wasabi.

大犬の陰嚢 (オオイヌノフグリ, oo-inu-no-fuguri)
Veronica persica
Persian speedwell, birdeye speedwell, birds-eye

One of my favourite spring flowers and one of the earliest blooming, showing up as early as February. The name has long intrigued me, as it means "large dog's balls" (fuguri being a rather obscure word for testicles) yet looks nothing like any dog balls I've ever seen. Until today, when I saw a picture of the seed pod while researching this post, and what do you know? It really does look like dog balls (although I wouldn't exactly call them large). I'm greatly relieved to finally know where the name came from, as it means I can stop checking out dog's testicles. People were starting to talk.

二輪草 (ニリンソウ, nirin-sou)
Anemone flaccida
Soft windflower

The Japanese name means "two-flower grass", referring to the fact that most plants produce two flowers (although many, like the two below, produce just one and some produce three). "Soft windflower" is a literal translation of the Latin name and I'm not sure if this is the real common English name, as I only came across it on a few websites, all of them Japanese. There are very similar plants called ichirin-sou (one-flower grass) and sanrin-sou (three-flower grass), which as the names suggest produces one and three flowers respectively. So what makes me think that the two pictures below are of nirin-sou? It's just a guess, based on the other nirin-sou they were with as well as their bracts. I could be wrong though.

All pictures are mine, most taken this year in Tokyo with a few older pictures from Tokyo, Saitama and Kanagawa. I'm an amateur plant lover, so feel free to correct any mistakes I might have made.

Comments

[Hayley]

Super post, Amy - I really enjoyed this. I never seem to manage to get to Japan in springtime, though I'm well experienced at all the other seasons now. I will have to live vicariously through these photos :)

[illahee]

pretty pretty pretty!

[Aspasia]

Very pretty--and some of the nicest shots were of the closed flowers. I can see why your photos are being used on Wikipedia.

I still don't like Creeping Charlie, though...

[Jocelyn]

Thank you for sharing these beautiful flowers. The fringed iris is my favorite!

[DJ Los Angeles]

At first glance it looked like a こごみ, but after consulting the books it seems that こごみ are green when they're young, so it remains a mystery...

[DJ Los Angeles]

... referring to pictures 9-10.

[Amy]

Hayley, I love spring in Japan but a lot of the good stuff is easy to overlook. Especially in the city during cherry blossom time: the flowers themselves are nice but otherwise there's nothing much else going on: it's still cold, the trees don't have their leaves yet, and other flowers are few and far between. I do hope you can swing a springtime visit sometime though.

Thanks Illahee!

Aspasia, if I had an actual garden I might think differently, but as it is I'm free to love the weeds!

Thank you Jocelyn!

DJ Lost Angeles, thanks for trying. I may have better luck identifying them by the adult leaves, so I'll just have to go back and find them again.

[YSC]

Hi, I stumbled upon your lovely blog through eGullet and have enjoyed your wonderful posts. I used to live in Japan as a child, so this all brings back lots of memories. By sheer coincidence, last night I was reading the book "Oriental Vegetables" by Joy Larkcom (an excellent book for veggie growers) and there was an entry on Orychophragus violaceus (Murasaki hana na) which identifies it as an edible vegetable originally from China, where it is known as February Orchid/Chinese violet cress.

To quote: "It grows wild in China and is also cultivated as a fodder crop. In the West it has in the past been cultivated both in flower borders and cool greenhouses...It is also found growing wild in Japan;it is reported to have been introduced from China as an ornamental several centuries ago, but subsequently spread into the countryside."

Apparently it is an excellent salad plant and can also be steamed. Sorry if this is a somewhat long post, but I figured that if you love plants, as you seem to, you might be interested in this additional information!

[JM]

How breath-taking are they!
Thanks for great pictures.