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Atago Forest and Green Protection Association

Atago Mountain Plants-Tree 7 (Ham)

This is a page of trees (flowers are displayed on a separate page for each season). Tree names are listed in order of Aiueo on this page. However, typical trees are displayed at the beginning of each page. Images of trees with flowers and fruits are also displayed on seasonal pages. Click on an image to see it in full view, or lay it down to enlarge it.
Kuzu Kazeto. Piperales Piperaceae Pepper genus. Also known as Tsurugosho. The only species of Piperaceae in mainland Japan. It is a vine and grows naturally on Mt. Atago. Mostly on warm coasts. Dioecious. The flowering season is from April to May. The spikes (inflorescences) of female plants are 4 to 8 cm. Many small female flowers can be seen in each grain. The color of the flower is white, but since the anther is yellow, it looks yellow as a whole (yellowish green when immature). The flowers of the male plant are yellowish green and the grains are invisible.
Red fruits (on females) in winter. It has a faint pepper scent, but it cannot be used as a fragrance. It is said that the stems and leaves are put in a bath to make a medicinal bath, which is effective for neuralgia, bruising, and fractures.
In addition, there is a non-vine species of Chasuble (Critically Endangered) on Hahajima Island, Ogasawara, but there is only one native strain.

 
Kuzu Kazeto. Piperales Piperaceae Pepper genus. Also known as Tsurugosho. Dioecious. It is a vine and grows naturally on Mt. Atago. Mostly on warm coasts. This is a female strain.
The flowering season is from April to May. Female strain. The spikes are 4-8 cm. Many small female flowers can be seen in each grain. The color of the flower is white (?), But since the anther is yellow, it looks yellow as a whole (green when immature).
Male strain. The only species of Piperaceae in mainland Japan. In addition, there is a non-vine species of Chasuble (Critically Endangered) on Hahajima Island, Ogasawara, but there is only one native strain.
Piper kadsura (female strain) in full bloom. Even though it is in full bloom, it does not stand out.
Female flower of Piper kadsura. The length of the spikes (spores) is 4-8 cm. Since the anthers are yellow, the flowers look yellow as a whole.
If you look closer at the female flowers of Piper kadsura, you can see a lot of small white grains in bloom one by one.
After the female flowers of Piper kadsura are finished, the small brown grains eventually become round fruits that look just like pepper. It is actually green until it is ripe.
Piper kadsura fruit. The fruits turn red in winter. It has a faint pepper scent, but it cannot be used as a fragrance. It is said that the stems and leaves are put in a bath to make a medicinal bath, which is effective for neuralgia, bruising, and fractures.

© Atago Forest and Green Protection Association

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