Mt. Sougaku and Mt. Gozen, Okutama (April 26th)

Ogouchi Dam aka. Okutama Lake.

Today we went to hike on the trail from Okutama Lake up to Mt. Sougaku and Mt. Gozen.
It was cloudy and started raining, so we couldn't see the opening flowers of Erythronium japonicum (Katakuri), but we found lots of the plants and closed flowers on this trail. We also found some young leaves of Viola Shikokiana (Shikoku Sumire) on the way down from Mt. Gozen. It was a little too early for their flowers, so we found only one opening flower of the violet.

惣岳山、御前山のカタクリを見に出かけたのですが、あいにくの曇り空で小雨も降り出し、たくさん花を見つけたものの、咲いている花を見つけることはできませんでした。御前山から下る途中、芽吹いて間もないシコクスミレの葉を見つけました。


Beautiful greens.


Nice green forest.


Viola tokubuchiana var. takedana (Hina Sumire)


Erythronium japonicum (Katakuri)


Viola bisseti (Nagaba-no-Sumiresaishin)


Viola tokubuchiana var. takedana (Hina Sumire)
ヒナスミレも雨に濡れています。


Viola Shikokiana (Shikoku Sumire)


Viola Shikokiana (Shikoku Sumire)
Lovely heart-shaped leaves...
ハート型の葉がかわいらしいです。


Viola Shikokiana (Shikoku Sumire)


Viola Shikokiana (Shikoku Sumire)
I like this pure white flower.
純白の花もさわやかで素敵です。


Greens from Sakaibashi.
この季節の境橋からのこの緑、大好きです。

Some Mountains near Mitake, Ome (April 20th)

Viola X pseudo-makinoi f. concolor (Midori Mitsumori Sumire)
The hybrid of Viola violacea var. makinoi (Makino Sumire) and Viola sieboldi (Fumoto Sumire).

Today we went to hike on the mountains from JR Mitake sta. As soon as we started the trail, we encountered the wonder of nature, which we had never seen. The natural hybrid of the different kinds of violets -- we knew about their existence from the violet book, but we had never seen until today. At that area Viola violacea var. makinoi and Viola sieboldi were growing in the same place, and we found the ones which looked similar to both of the 2 different kinds of the violets. Furthermore, we found another kind of the hybrid violet on today's trail, which should have been the hybrid of Viola violacea var. makinoi and Viola eizanensis. This ones had really interesting shapes of the leaves, which we had never seen before. It was raining pretty much all day, but it turned to be a really nice hike for finding the interesting violets.

御嶽駅周辺の山を歩いてきました。今日一番の収穫は、自然交雑種を初めて、しかも全く予期せず見ることができたこと。とにかく、ご覧ください！


Viola sieboldi (Fumoto Sumire)


Viola sieboldi (Fumoto Sumire)


Viola X pseudo-makinoi f. concolor (Midori Mitsumori Sumire)


Viola X pseudo-makinoi f. concolor (Midori Mitsumori Sumire)
Close-up.
It looks like Viola violacea var. makinoi (Makino Sumire), but it has hairy inside of the flowers like Viola sieboldi (Fumoto Sumire).
ミドリミツモリスミレ。一見、マキノスミレのようですが、花の内側に毛が見られるなどフモトスミレの特徴も見られます。


Viola X pseudo-makinoi f. concolor (Midori Mitsumori Sumire)
葉の形も普通のマキノスミレとは少し違っています。


Viola X pseudo-makinoi f. concolor (Midori Mitsumori Sumire)
The backside of the leave, which looks closer to the one of Viola sieboldi (Fumoto Sumire).
葉の裏を見ても、明らかな紫色で、フモトスミレに近い特徴が見られました。


Viola X pseudo-makinoi f. concolor (Midori Mitsumori Sumire)


Viola violacea var. makinoi (Makino Sumire)


Viola violacea var. makinoi (Makino Sumire)


Viola violacea var. makinoi (Makino Sumire)
このコース、マキノスミレも点々と見られます。


Viola X taradakensis var. eizalacea (Kawagishi Sumire)
The natural hybrid of Viola violacea var. makinoi (Makino Sumire) and Viola eizanensis (Eizan Sumire).
もうひとつ見つけた自然交雑種、カワギシスミレ。周りにマキノスミレが分布していたし、葉の柄の様子から見ても恐らくカワギシスミレだと思う。３株ほどかたまっていた。


Viola X taradakensis var. eizalacea (Kawagishi Sumire)


Viola X taradakensis var. eizalacea (Kawagishi Sumire)


Viola X taradakensis var. eizalacea (Kawagishi Sumire)


Viola bisseti (Nagaba-no-Sumiresaishin)


Viola rossi (Akebono Sumire)


Erythronium japonicum (Katakuri)

Home, ICU and Nogawa Park (April 17th)

Nogawa Park.
Beautiful green of the willow leaves.

We took a walk from home to Nogawa Park through ICU campus.
Trees were all beautiful and soft green.

ICUと野川公園に散歩に出かけてきました。フデリンドウの白を初めて見つけました。


Greens in the ICU campus.


Gentiana zollingeri (Fude rindou)


Gentiana zollingeri (Fude rindou)
The white one.


Violets in my container garden.


Violets in my container garden.
We grew these from the seeds, which we got when we visited a violet exhibition held at Jindai Botanical Garden last spring.
昨年、神代植物公園のスミレの展示の時に頂いた種から育てたスミレです。

Mazukari Ridge, Hinohara (April 12th)

Cherry blossom near the Fussawa waterfall.

We went to hike on the Mazukari ridge from Hinohara village. We saw some patches of Shortia uniflora (Iwa Uchiwa) last year and this time we could also find them with much more flowers. They seem to like to grow on the dangerous cliff, so it was hard to take the pictures.

イワウチワを探しに馬頭刈尾根を歩いてきました。去年よりもずっと多くのイワウチワを見つけることができました。


Viola eizanensis (Eizan Sumire)


Mitella pauciflora (Kocharumeru-sou)


Cedar forest.


Viola tokubuchiana var. takedana (Hina Sumire)


Viola bisseti (Nagaba-no-Sumiresaishin)
This is the white one.


Viola sieboldi (Fumoto Sumire)


Viola chaerophylloides f. sieboldiana (Higo Sumire)


Viola rossi (Akebono Sumire)


Shortia uniflora (Iwa Uchiwa)


Viola tokubuchiana var. takedana (Hina Sumire)

Somewhere in Tama area (April 5th)

Viola violacea (Shihai Sumire)
今年も元気に咲いていました．．．シハイスミレ。

Today we went to some hills at the Tama area, where we saw the nice patches of Viola violacea (Shihai Sumire) flowers last year. They were blooming this year, too. And we notice that quite a few Cymbidium goeringii (Shunran) flowers there, too. Today we found lots of kinds of violets, but Viola chaerophylloides f. sieboldiana (Higo Sumire) was not blooming yet.

多摩地区のとあるハイキングコースへ出かけてきました。高尾の日影沢の様に、思慮のない人まで大量に押し寄せることのないよう、場所は秘密にしておきます。（でも、知ってる人は知っているはず。）
今年もちゃんと咲いていました、シハイスミレ。ニオイタチツボスミレもかなり咲いています。不思議な所に生えているヒゴスミレも健在でしたが、花が咲くのはもう少し先になりそうです。スミレの他に、今回、シュンランもたくさん、目にすることができました。



Cymbidium goeringii (Shunran)


Cymbidium goeringii (Shunran)


Viola violacea (Shihai Sumire)
Pretty tiny one...compare with the size of acorn.
ドングリと比べてみても、この子はかなり小さかったです。


Viola phalacrocarpa (Akane Sumire)
アカネスミレも見つけました。


Viola violacea (Shihai Sumire)


Viola violacea (Shihai Sumire)
Backside of the leaves are purplish.
葉の裏は紫みを帯びています。


Viola violacea (Shihai Sumire)
The spurs are long and skinny.
後姿はこんな感じ。


Viola violacea (Shihai Sumire)
こんな立派な株もありました。


Viola obtusa (Nioi Tachitsubo Sumire)
This one has the nice smell.
いい香りがします。


Viola verecunda (Nyoi Sumire)
去年も咲いていた所に、もう咲いていました。


Viola obtusa (Nioi Tachitsubo Sumire)
この紫色がとても素敵です。


Viola grypoceras (Tachitsubo Sumire)
これもタチツボスミレでいいのかなぁ．．．葉っぱの様子が他とは違っているような．．．


Viola chaerophylloides f. sieboldiana (Higo Sumire)
Interesting shapes of leaves.
つぼみをつけた株はこのひとつだけしか見つけられませんでした。