Observation Meeting of "Ume" – Japanese Plum Blossoms Blooming in the Early Spring
Published on Mar 13, 2019
The observation meeting of ume, Japanese plum blossoms was held at the Osaka City University (OCU) Botanical Gardens on Saturday 23 February.
Approximately 50 people participated in the event on a typical beautiful warm day in mid March.
Associate Professor Chiyomi Uematsu, expert of “ume” from Graduate School of Science, OCU, was engaged in an instructor of the event and introduced stories concerning ume such as ‘Manyoshu’ and 'Sugawara no Michizane'. (‘Manyoshu’, meaning 'Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves', is the oldest existing collection of Japanese poetry . 'Sugawara no Michizane' was a scholar, poet and politician of the Heian Period known as the god of learning. His love for ume is well known.) Later she inspected the structure (petals, sepals, stamen, pistil) of the plum blossoms with a loupe as well as conducted experiments of relations between colors of blossoms and pigments such as white, pink and red, etc. with test reagent (ammonia and vinegar) familiar with public.
The participants were quite satisfied with what they listened, saw and experienced in this event.
at the Botanical Garden
by reagent
Approximately 40 breeds planted in the plum gardens in the OCU Botanical Gardens are currently at their best.
Please check the OCU Botanical Gardens official facebook for blooming information.