Hagi (Lespedeza bicolor) - Hagi (English spelling)

Japanese: ハギ(萩) - ハギ（英語表記）Lespedeza bicolor

A deciduous shrub of the legume family, also called Yamahagi. It is commonly found in the mountains and fields of various regions. It branches into many thin branches, grows to a height of about 2m, and has fine hairs on the branches. The leaves are trifoliate compound leaves with long petioles, and the leaflets are 2-4cm long, broadly elliptical or broadly obovate, with circular and slightly concave tips. In autumn, numerous racemes emerge from the axils of the twigs, producing reddish-purple, butterfly-shaped flowers. The fruit is a flat elliptical pod containing one seed. The genus Hagi is distributed in Asia, Australia, and the Americas, and several dozen species are known. There are more than ten species in Japan, and the well-known ones include Miyaginohagi (Miyaginohagi), Marubahagi (Marubahagi), Nekohagi (Nekohagi), Inuhagi, and Medohagi (Medohagi). Hagi has been a plant that has been familiar to Japanese people since ancient times, and is counted as one of the seven autumn herbs. The character for bush clover is a combination of the character for autumn and a grass crown to indicate that this species is a typical example of a plant that blooms in autumn, and has a completely different meaning from the Chinese character for bush clover.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia About Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia Information

Japanese:

マメ科の落葉低木で，ヤマハギともいう。各地の山野に普通に生える。細い枝を多数分枝し，高さ 2mほどになり，枝には細毛がある。葉は長い葉柄をもつ3出複葉で，小葉は長さ2～4cmの広楕円形ないし広倒卵形で先端は円形でややくぼむ。秋に，小枝の葉腋から多数の総状花序を出し，紅紫色の蝶形花をつける。果実は平たい楕円形の莢果で，中に種子1個を生じる。ハギ属はアジア，オーストラリアおよびアメリカ大陸に分布し，数十種が知られる。日本にも 10種以上あり，ミヤギノハギ (宮城野萩)，マルバハギ，ネコハギ (猫萩)，イヌハギ，メドハギ (目処萩)などはよく知られている。ハギは古くから日本人に親しまれている植物の1つで，秋の七草にも数えられている。萩という字は，本種が秋に花を咲かせる代表的なものを示すため，秋の字の上に草冠をつけたもので，中国の萩という漢字とはまったく別の意味である。

出典　ブリタニカ国際大百科事典小項目事典ブリタニカ国際大百科事典小項目事典について　情報

<<: Hagi [city] - Hagi

>>: Reversal - haki (English spelling)