Autumn flowers and walking

Rokkō alpine botanical garden is on Mount Rokkō, one of a group mountains in Hyogo prefecture.


It was opened in 1933, since then visitors can appreciate variety of seasonal alpine flowers whenever they visit.

Rokkō is not actually a very high mountain,931m at its highest point with fairly steep slope, and the transportation, cable car or ropeway, is so convenient that even children can enjoy climbing and taking a walk on the roads.

It is known that some area on the mountain range developed as a summer retreat by foreign residents in Kobe after Meiji (1868~), and they made some artificial ponds around there.

There are some ponds in the botanical garden as well and they give some significant atmosphere to the garden. So,we can also see many aqua plants and flowers.

It was at the beginning of July when I climbed Mount Rokkō several years ago, and I enjoyed to see many hydrangeas along side of the road to the botanical garden and many summer alpine flowers in it.

This time I realised about season's transition much more than I did at the last time.
Temperature was 14 degrees centigrade which made me feel much cooler than I expected, yet I recognised some fading summer plants like some afterglow.        

Enko-so or Caltha palustris var. enkoso are almost starting to wither, but the golden yellow have not yet lost colour.



Daimonji-so or Saxifraga fortunei var.incisolobata are in full bloom, though the tiny flowers' blooming is so quiet.

The tiny flower looks like a letter of Dai (大), so it derives its name, Daimonji-so, from｛Dai(大=big)monji(文字=letter)sou(草=herb)｝.

Can you see many Dai(大) letters?

As for naming, Waremokou, Sanguisorba officinalis, has an interesting origin.

Ware(吾) means" I", mo(亦) is "also", and kou(紅) signifies red.

That is to say, it blooms showing "I'm in red, as well".

They are bathing in the clear autumn sun light and exhibit their understated colour.

Viewing and appreciating some flowers and feature of this garden I found joy in just walking.

Walking made me loose my sense of time, and made me feel sound physically and mentally as if I was purified by it.

細かなる山の草花屈みこみ見るとき秋のひかり濃くなる　haricot

Bending lower

at the tiny petals of

an alpine flower

I feel the autumn sun light

becoming dense