フィールド日記

ヒメコウゾの花が咲いています。一見、花には見えないユニークな形をしていますが、写真の赤い毛の生えた球体は雌花の集まりで、赤い毛の一本一本が雌しべです。ヒメコウゾは雌雄同株で、雄花の集まりも同じ木に見られますが、この写真には写っていません。林縁に見られる落葉低木で、樹皮は和紙の原料として使われていました。


"Hime-kouzo (ヒメコウゾ)" trees are in bloom. They might not be recognized as flowers at a glance. The spheres with red hair in the photo are the clusters of their flowers and every single red hair is their pistil. "Hime-kouzo" are monoecious, so each tree has both male and female flowers. However, we can’t see male flowers in the photo here. They are deciduous shrubs that are often seen in the edge of forests. Their barks were used for making Japanese paper.