Tanuki no teikokudai - Tanuki no teikokudai

Japanese: タヌキノショクダイ - たぬきのしょくだい

A very rare saprophytic plant of the family Polypodium that grows on the evergreen broad-leaved forest floor of Shikoku (illustration). It has no chloroplasts and is yellowish-white in color. The branched rhizome buries itself under the fallen leaves, and a 1-4 cm tall flower stalk is erected, with a single flower at the top. It flowers in summer. The flower has a urn-shaped flower tube about 1 cm long, and the three inner tepals are elongated, obovate, and wedge-shaped, and are joined together at the top to form a dome-like structure. There are six stamens, which are attached to the inner edge of the flower tube. The flower has a very strange shape and was first discovered in Tokushima Prefecture by Abe Konichi (1943), and Akazawa Tokiyuki gave it the Japanese name Tanuki no Shokudai, possibly after the raccoon dog of Awa, and reported it to the Society in 1950.

Source: Heibonsha World Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition Information

Japanese:

四国の照葉樹林林床に生えるごくまれなヒナノシャクジョウ科の腐生植物（イラスト）。葉緑体をもたず黄白色。分枝した根茎が落葉の下にうずまり，高さ1～4cmの花茎を立て，その頂部に1花をつける。花期は夏。花はつぼ形の花筒部を有し，長さ1cmほど，3枚の内花被片は細長い倒卵形くさび形で，その頂端部で相互に合着して，ドーム状の構造になる。おしべは6本で，花筒部の内縁につく。たいへん奇妙な形の花で，最初徳島県で阿部近一が発見(1943)し，赤沢時之が阿波のタヌキにちなんでか，タヌキノショクダイの和名を付し，1950年に学会に報告した。

出典　株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典第２版について　情報

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