When I took a walk through Shimizu Park, which stretches north to south from National Route 2 to just before the JR line, I found fruit growing on all kinds of trees.

↑ First up is the “yabutsubaki” camellia. It had lots of big fruit on it!
Apparently, “camellia oil” can be extracted from yabutsubaki seeds.

On the maple tree in front of the biotope…

If you look closely, you can see lots of seeds with little propellers attached!
Thanks to those wings, the seeds can apparently fly quite far.

↑ This is an “egonoki” tree. It’s full of fruit!

The name “egonoki” apparently comes from the fact that “the fruit tastes egu-i, or harsh and bitter, when eaten”! If it was enough to become the tree’s name, it must really have quite a taste…

↑ This is a “hanamizuki,” or flowering dogwood. It’s famous from the song by Yo Hitoto! If you look closely…

There were lots of tiny red berries on it! It’s really bearing fruit!
By the way, there were a whole lot of sparrows perched in the flowering dogwood! (They flew away when I got close.)
I wonder if flowering dogwood berries taste good to sparrows.
These days, as we gradually start to feel a little hint of autumn, it can be fun to do some plant watching at a nearby park!
Here’s the map for Shimizu Park↓
The address is 6 Shimizu-cho, Ashiya City, Hyogo Prefecture.


