Flowering of fairies

The image above has been originally shared by flickr photostream.

The picture was taken in a colony of Katakuri which means dogtooth violet. Several thousand flowers of dogtooth violet bloomed on a slope of hill. Flowering time of the dogtooth violet is nearly same time as cherry blossoms in the local area where I live. So we can enjoy both cherry blossom viewing and dogtooth violet at same time. Each flower of dogtooth violet seems like a small fairy.

setsubun-sou, an endangered species

setsubun-sou, an endangered species, originally uploaded by photoholic image.

The flower called Setsubun-sou is very small, diameter of the flower is about 20 mm from 15 mm at most.
In general, it is said that this flower blooms around the Risshun (or Lichun in Chinese : 立春) which means the first day of spring, 4th to 5th of February each year, in terms of the traditional East Asian calender.　However, flowering time in here is the late February from beginning of March.

Setsubun-sou is one of species in the family of Ranunculaceae, and it is being designated as an endangered species in the red data book of the Ministry of Environment of Japan. It is said that Setsubun-sou grows in colonies like this is to be rare in Japan.
Therefore, we are requested to protect it in order to take over in the future.

a spring ephemeral or fairy of spring

a spring ephemeral or fairy of spring, originally uploaded by photoholic image.

An ephemeral plant seen above is called "Azuma-Ichige" in Japanese and it is one of species in genus of Anemone.

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Thank you for viewing and happy weekend to you all!!