Screw pine is a very familiar member of the orchid family, growing on park lawns and roadside planters.
The spiral shaped flowers of the screw pine are distinctive, but each flower is also beautifully shaped.
It's a little difficult to see with the naked eye, but if you use a magnifying glass of about 10x you can see it quite clearly (you can also take an instant macro photo by pressing the magnifying glass against your smartphone camera. Even a 100 yen store magnifying glass will do, so I recommend it).
The flowers are beautiful, but I personally think the leaves are beautiful as well.
Key features include the beautiful green color, neat elongated shape, straight veins, and slightly rounded leaves growing at the base.
However, it's a shame that it gets buried and hard to see if there are other plants growing around it.
by the way.
In Japan, in addition to the screw pine that is distributed north of Kyushu, the southern screw pine is known to be found south of the Ryukyu Islands, but in March of this year a new species, the eight-leaved screw pine, was described.
Apparently, Euonymus nipponicus has also been found in gardens and on balconies, so isn't it exciting that a new species could emerge from a plant that grows so close to us?
The distribution areas of screw pine and eight-leaved screw pine overlap, so you need to know their characteristics to tell them apart.
Screw pine flowers bloom from June onwards, while the eighty-seven screw pine flowers bloom from April to May.
Also, in terms of appearance, the flower stalk and ovary (the green part at the base of the flower where the seeds form) of the screw pine are hairy, whereas the eighty-first screw pine is hairless.
There seem to be other differences as well, but this seems sufficient for outdoor observation.
Looking at the 2020 article and this photo, they all have hair, so they look like screw pine.
It may be too late this year, but I'd like to see the Eight-Leaf Sprouts.
Following the description of the eight-leaved screwbell, the male screwbell, which grows in limited areas of Miyazaki Prefecture, was also described this June.
New things are being discovered one after another about familiar plants, giving us a glimpse into the incredible biodiversity of Japan.
reference
New species found in gardens and balconies!? New species of the most common orchid plant, "Spiranthes crenata," discovered - Kobe University
Spiranthes hachijoensis (Orchidaceae), a new species within the S. sinensis species complex in Japan, based on morphological, phylogenetic, and ecological evidence - SpringerLink
MURAKAMI Isao