栃木のイワウチワとカタクリ

少し遠出して栃木県那須町の「日本一」のカタクリの里を歩きました。でもカタクリの里としては相模原に負けてました！それに代わって思いがけずきれいでかわいくて感動したのはイワウチワ。山の急な斜面に一面に咲いていました。

雪割草や、初めて見た「ネコメソウ」、里山の菜の花、さくら、辛夷など、見渡す限り花いっぱいの日本です。

イワウチワ
ショウジョウバカマ
		雪割草
	スミレ	？
	アズマイチゲ
		ハナズオウ
レンギョウ

Dogtooth Voilet
里山の風景
		ネコメソウ

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Walked around the hills and mountains to see the “spring.” I enjoyed the sceneries with wild flowers. These were “iwauchiwa” or shotia, “katakuri”or dogtooth violet and “mizubasho” or skunk cabbage. I’m so embarrassed by their English names, as we call them with very beautiful Japanese words!

<Sally> Lovely photos, Akemi. True, the English names aren’t pretty, but their names are descriptive of their leaves. (I looked this up.) For instance the skunk cabbage is named that because when the leaves are crushed, they give off a bad smell. Still, I’d rather have something else about them reflected in their names! We’ll be seeing these in the next month or so.

Hello Sally, thank you so much for your comment. I think your naming is scientific/academic and our is more intuitive(?) I think the closer answer is these Japanese names are in “yamato kotoba,” (old Japanese). So they are named before science age! It is interesting to know why it was called “something.” I liked your answer very much, thank you, and hope you can see spring flowers very soon 🙂