Posts centered around Yuuka fumo and different flora. Not always on friday. Flowering plants are the main topic, but lifeforms of other kingdoms like fungi and protists may be posted here, too! || any/all
This account is made to post fumos with plants and sometimes others. It's inspired by other accounts. It's not going to be consistent, so click on the blog and follow the archives for hashtags to find specific posts. I also have another account on bluesky.
I will post a demonstration of the types of posts you will find in this account.
Posts on friday will be tagged with "#floral fumo fridays" while posts that take place any other days, like this one, will be tagged "#floral fumo flutters"
I will use other tags relating to touhous and other characters used but it will mostly be Yuuka Kazami from Touhou Project.
This is a Red Maple Tree(Acer rubrum), there are other plants around, but they are not the focus right now. It is known for its leaves turning a vibrant red color in the fall, hence its name. It also blooms tiny red flowers in the late winter to spring, too. It has sap that is used to create maple syrup, but it is in little amounts compared to the Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum). The latter is better at the job for syrup making. Maple syrup making tends to be a laborious task either way.
Click this for more info about Red Maple Trees
Floral Fumo Fridays of the Week (SPRING!!): Vernal Crocus (Crocus vernus)
Yuuka found herself back in Mayohiga but saw the vampire and Yukari together. Yukari said that the flowers were fragrant to many, but to a vampire they were foul and had weakened them. And while it was cloudy everywhere else, it was sunny here: a vampire's signature weakness. Battles can no longer be fought.
Both Yuuka and the vampire objected to this rule, but nonetheless followed it. What is a youkai who can't battle?
This is Vernal Crocus(Crocus vernus) of the Iris family (Iridaceae). It is a very common garden/house flower that normally blooms between the end of winter and the beginning of spring. Usually, this flower comes in shades of yellow, purple, white and a very light lavender with purple stripes. I found all of the possible colors of this crocus flower except yellow.
They are native to Southern and Eastern Europe, but they are mostly found (and thrive!) on mountain ranges such as their native areas of the Alps or the Balkans. These flowers usually grow around 15 centimeters tall. At the bottom of these flowers underground lies a structure that is similar to a bulb, but much different called a corm. These flowers also only bloom for a short while, but afterwards they just start looking like normal grass throughout the year. They are noted for their small but showy appearance. These ones are not the type of crocus that grows saffron which are a deeper scarlet color of the stigma and bloom in the fall, those are autumn crocus, or Crocus sativus.
The name of the flower Crocus is pretty self-explanatory and has been used to describe this flower and Crocus sativus since ancient times, so it is both the common name and also the name of the genus. Vernus comes from vernal which means spring, since this crocus blooms at the beginning of spring. The family name Iridaceae comes from Iris flowers, and those have their namesake with the god of rainbows: Iris. The namesake of the family name is because many flowers in this plant family have vibrant and a large variety of colors.
Spring is here! And that means that there will be many flowers blooming! I love to take pictures of my Yukari fumo with croci, because I think it suits her the most. Crocus is a flower that blooms between the end of winter and the beginning of spring, so it blooms on the boundaries between seasons! Crocus is also part of the Iris family, which is a family of flowers with vibrant colors, and most of the Yakumo family's names are based on colors (incl. Chen). I only got the Yuuka fumo during the fall, and fall and winter are pretty challenging when finding the more popular Angiosperms. Also, for the last post, you can see some pictures of Mystery A on here next to the purple ones. That one will bloom pretty soon and we will know what those flowers are, but growing flowers does take lots of patience and time.
BONUS: On a sunny day, croci have their petals spread out and they look pretty normal. However...
This strange phenomenon is called Nyctinasty! Whenever it becomes dark, either by heavy clouds or by nighttime, certain plants close their petals and leaves. It has been studied by Linnaeus and Darwin, too. Today, nyctinasty is still a mysterious phenomenon, and we don't exactly know why certain plants do this. Maybe some day, we will know the secrets about nyctinasty.
Plant nyctinasty – who will decode the ‘Rosetta Stone’? by Ueda, Ishimaru, et al.,
The functions of foliar nyctinasty: a review and hypothesis by Minorsky
Floral Fumo Flutters of the Week Women's Day Edition 💜: Mystery Plants! (Angiosperms)👁
Yuuka, after weeks of wandering, still seems to be lost in the border of Gensokyo. But she did find some interesting plants along the way. Two of the plants she found bore a fresh and savory scent, but the last one was more sweeter. They are all flowering plants that have awakened from dormancy, or Angiosperms. Are they edible? Are they poisonous? For now, let's assume that all plants shown are poisonous.
Let's talk about this first plant, Mystery A. Mystery A has a pretty thick and layered structure. One could assume that it could be a bulby root cooking vegetable like an onion, but we cannot tell this yet unless we dig it up.
These plants also have a budding structure at the top that will grow into a flower very soon! Mystery A is pretty easy to tell, but we cannot spoil it unless the flower blooms.
The next one is Mystery B. This plant can get overlooked at a first glance as being "grass," and I'll give a hint that it is most definitely something much more than grass. This one also has a pretty thick and layered structure similar to Mystery A at the bottom, which indicates that there is a bulby like structure as well. These two plants could be related in some way.
One clear note is that they also have a white stripe on its leaves. They are super tiny, and some of the leaves seem to be more tube-like. They seem to have an origin around a center. What could this plant be?
Last one is Mystery C. This one is much different than the rest. It is woody and tree-like and has a smooth branches a little bit similar to the plant Rosa multiflora that grew Rose Hips and the dormant plant with a ghastly color Rubus occidentalis that we have shown before.
They have very showy flowering buds on them, and they are a bit of a spoiler on what they are. 😅 But we have to wait for them to fully bloom and find out what they really are!
Happy International Women's Day, of course. 💜 Touhou Project is a series where a majority of the cast are women that play many very important roles in shaping its world. All of these plants will have their own posts in the future and we will show which one's which.
Winter is honestly one of the most challenging seasons to find blooming flowering plants (Angiosperms), and many of them that are winter blooming only bloom flowers really late in the season. As soon as the snow melted, all of these plants immediately grew and budded flowers within days. Some of these mysteries grew pretty late this year, they're supposed to grow like this in late-February, but it's been so cold lately. So for some of them they are technically winter flowers. 😶
Angiosperms are any of about 300,000 species of flowering plants, the largest and most diverse group in the plant kingdom. Angiosperms are v
Floral Fumo Fridays Valentine's Edition: Common Greenshield Lichen (Flavoparmelia caperata)
Yuuka still wandered about Mayohiga in search of more plants, but she grew tired and bored. To her, the shikigami minions were taking too long to solve the incident. She then planned once more to find and wake up the sleeping sage. Wandering away from Mayohiga to a farther place on the borders of Gensokyo, she became lost.
Yuuka found a bunch of tree branches with strangely branchy and green disc-like creatures on it. The green and branchiness reads that maybe they are another plant, but a closer look and she finds that its more porous. Is it a plant? Is it a fungus? What is this?
With a blink of Yuuka's eyes, Ran appeared once more, "I see that there's no stopping a troublesome youkai like you."
Yuuka feigned cluelessness, "I have no idea what you're talking about, I'm just admiring the beauty of nature. What are these strange things on these poor branches? Are they plants too?"
Ran saw through Yuuka's smile, but could not help her beastly nature of playing along to Yuuka's whimsiness, "It's a lichen. They're actually a bunch of organisms in a symbiotic relationship between fungi and many microorganisms to form one organism. Some of the microorganisms could be very tiny plants, but Lady Yukari says that it's often disputed in the Outside World."
Yuuka becomes more invested, "Interesting... Anyways, I'm now more interested in these lichens. Now I want to see what information Yukari has about plants!"
"You will never get to Lady Yukari! You're too weak to even face her! You'll be lost in this boundary forever, at this rate!" Ran quickly disappeared without a trace.
"Hmm... I guess something tells me I'm close." Yuuka questioned the fox.
Just as the fox elusively appeared, she disappeared without warning. But she accidentally dropped a chocolate candy wrapped in a golden glistening wrapper by the ground. Yuuka wondered what a beast would be doing with chocolate candy, as the delicacy is poisonous to animals and beasts. She tried to get closer to the chocolate, but a gap with a mysterious arm grabbed the candy before Yuuka's eyes!
Yuuka remembers those gaps from anywhere! It was the gaps of Yukari Yakumo! But she only grabbed Ran's candy and the gap quickly disappeared. So strange... ᗜ ̫ ᗜ
Lichens are a fungus in a symbiotic relationship with normally a eukaryotic algae or cyanobacteria. One side of the lichen is the fungal side called the mycobiont and the other is the photobiont. Mycobionts form most of the lichen body and we can see its predominant tissues through the naked eye, called the thallus. Photobionts can be any small microorganism with a chlorophyll and it's usually a green algae or cyanobacteria; something we normally can't see without special equipment. This is usually the basic definition of what lichens are, but the more we learn about lichens, we actually find that there are other species like yeasts and bacteria that part of this system. Lichens like Common Greenshield Lichen are a special kind of being, because they are actually a symbiotic system combined into its own organism! They are couples for life!
This page is an introduction to lichens, with an overview of what they are, where they live, how they reproduce, and what key features are u
This is Common Greenshield Lichen (Flavoparmelia caperata) of the shield lichen Parmeliaceae family, which is a family of the mycobiont side of lichens. This lichen is found in numerous places throughout the world, and is predominantly found on wooded trees. The disc like shape is the thallus, and it can form a wrinkly shape that can grow a diameter of up to roughly 20cm. The innermost part of the thallus is more yellow, is an older part of the lichen, and is much more wrinkly than the outermost layers. This lichen with wrinkly and branch-like structures is called a foliose lichen. This thallus is the most noticeable, and is the vegetative part of the lichen. The photobiont performs photosynthesis at the algal layer below the thallus then sends nutrients to the rest of the body. The thallus can help the lichen clone itself, but this method isn't ideal.
A closer look at the whiter edges of the "branches" and you can find more powdery and porous-like structures. These are soredia and soralia. These help the lichen reproduce new lichens elsewhere through spores, but common greenshield lichen rarely grows structures like these. Instead, it relies on cloning (asexual reproduction) through the thallus to reproduce.
The common greenshield lichen is a green foliose lichen that grows on the bark of hardwood trees. It is common and widespread in eastern Nor
Lichens like common greenshield lichen are often overlooked (imo) as much as mosses are. Like mosses, they are not parasitic to the plant they grow on and simply live there as epiphytes.
Lichens are a symbiotic relationship, generally classified as a mutualism, between at least one fungal partner (the mycobiont) and at least
The name of the lichen is always based on its mycobiont side. Flavo of flavoparmelia means "yellow" in latin and parmelia of flavoparmelia comes from its family name parmeliaceae and is the name of another genus in the family parmelia and ultimately comes from parma, which is latin for "shield." The species name caperata comes from capero which is latin for wrinkly. The name is pretty straightforward, but the mycobiont side has gone through many taxonomical changes and flavorparmelia caperata is a very recent name, so it may go under pseudoparmelia caperata in some older, but not too old, texts.
Lets talk about the photobiont side for a bit: While we cannot identify what the photobionts of this lichen are (and I would rather save them for another day as their own post), we can talk about it in a more general sense. Algae themselves are a broad range of organisms and some, like chlorophytes, are debatably considered plants in the stricter sense through their categorization into the Viridiplantae clade, while others are under the term Protist or Protista. Protista itself is comprised of any eukaryote that is neither an Animal, Plant, nor Fungi, but it's more of an umbrella term rather than a true kingdom. Cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, are prokaryotes that enact photosynthesis as a means of obtaining energy. Chloroplasts and other plastids, which are an organelle found in eukaryotic algae and plants, actually used to belong to this phylum until they became endosymbiont as organelles.
Algae are a diverse group of aquatic organisms that have the ability to conduct photosynthesis. There exists a vast and varied world of alga
Abstract. Cyanobacteria have had a pivotal role in the history of life on Earth being the first organisms to perform oxygenic photosynthesis
Whaat? It's Valentine's Day and a Friday! This isn't a flower, not even a plant! It's a fungus... or actually... it's two things! Technically... The holiday this post is for is associated with flowers, but there are still no flowers that have formally grown yet here. I find that lichens are fitting either way.
Just in case for the first two links, here's an archival mirror link of them.
This page is a basic introduction to lichens, so you can distinguish them from small plants and start learning the names of their structures
Common greenshield lichen is a medium to large, green foliose lichen. Common and widespread in eastern North America, it grows on the bark o
(Bryophyte) Floral Fumo Fridays of the Week: Cypress-leaved Plait-Moss (Hypnum cupressiforme)
"Cheeeeenn!! Have you been poking a stick at this youkai for weeks?"
"Lady Ran! I think I found the culprit! She's been causing a rampage all around Gensokyo, until she took a rest at the entrance to Mayohiga. I've tried waking her up a bunch of times and she never woke up! Also..."
"Something else?"
"Gensokyo moved to the year 1900! That has to be something that she's done, too!"
"O-oh, right. Chen. that's... your shikigami hardware is still in beta testing phases... It's the year 2000."
"Woah, really?"
Yuuka slightly opened her eyes and found a cat talking with her master fox.
"Huh? You managed to wake her up!" Chen exclaimed.
"Hmm... Something feels quite strange about this youkai you found. Yes, I believe that she has staged an incident sometime ago, she is Yuuka Kazami. While she may have caused quite a ruckus then and now, she looks to be fading. She is not the real culprit, although she may have played a little bit of a factor."
Yuuka steadily closes her eyes back.
"Nyaa?" Chen froze.
The fox shoots a card to the sleepy Yuuka. After the initial strike, Yuuka felt more alert than ever and seems to have recovered.
Ran noted, "It seems that this incident is far more serious. Either way, the spell I've given you should slowly help you recover for a bit, but it's not as great as what Lady Yukari can do. My master is in hibernation and tasked us to solve the incident. But..."
Yuuka interrupted, "Why couldn't you get the shrine maiden to do it?"
"The shrine maiden is still a bit inexperienced. She thinks that this is an issue between fellow youkai, and humans shouldn't be involved. But that's not the case," Ran clarified, "In fact, the culprit and this incident seems to have been overlooked by many, and it turns out that they've been causing mischief for around a few years ever since they settled into Gensokyo."
Yuuka agreed, "Oh, dear. I've heard that it was a vampire."
"You're correct, it is a vampire. Although, this one is far more powerful than the ones in Mugenkan, and she has an army of powerful devils, magicians and other youkai by her side, as well. I haven't been able to infiltrate the mansion she resides in at all."
"So, what do you suppose we do, then? Maybe you should knock your master awake!" Yuuka asked.
"Not needed. In fact, the reason why I'm here is to order Chen to lure the culprit to this village," Ran answered.
"Nyaaa? C-can Miss Yuuka be our bait?"
"I think I would do more than being bait if I found her," Yuuka noted.
"Chen, it seems that this Yuuka you found is a bit too wreckless just like the culprit. Also, she's very slow at moving, so I don't think she could catch up to you, Chen." Ran pointed out, "I think it would be best for her to stay in Mayohiga. She is in a much weaker state, too. I will report my findings to Yukari, and you can lure the culprit over here."
The two shikigami switly leave, as Yuuka wanders alone to explore the abandoned village of Mayohiga. There's lots of snow coverage, and it seems that winter is on its way to a close. There doesn't seem to be any plants around that are blooming and growing around this season. She wondered if, on her journey of changing her nature, that is why she fell asleep for so long. She strolls along the village and finds many abandoned houses. These houses have patches of green on their rooftops. When she looks closer at the patches of green, she notices that they are thriving mosses!
Oops! I think I fell asleep again! 😉 It's almosst as if something about the cold of the winter that makes you pretty sleepy. 🥱 We're in late winter now, so surely there should be some flowers that are starting to bud. This post isn't covering a flowering or a fruiting plant, but something even smaller!
Mosses like the plant that's featured is very unlike many of the plants we have shown. They are oftentimes overlooked for their simple looks and tininess, but there are many things that make mosses something to pay attention to. This plant is Cypress-leaved Plaitmoss (Hypnum cupressiforme), of the carpet moss family, Hypnaceae. 😪 They have a native range of almost the entire world and are basically found everywhere (except Antarctica)! Because this one goes under many names referring to its many varieties, we will stick to calling it Hypnum cupressiforme.
Hypnum cupressiforme is so tiny, that it's completely hard to miss in the first image! The photos aren't really in good quality as my phone's camera doesn't like taking pictures of super tiny things. I had a similar issue with a couple of other plants of previous posts. Their growth range is only 2-10cm. They have over 60 varieties and come in differing colors of green and yellow. These plants are not dormant but active, and a plant that's active during the winter is called an evergreen plant. Another difference to some of the plants we've shown is that they do not flower, and they do not grow fruit nor cones. They are more simple and have spore capsules.
Hypnum cupressiforme are very hardy against harsh and varying climates and thrive in acidic-to-slightly basic environments. This is what makes it live almost everywhere in the world. Hypnum cupressiforme is commonly found on rocks and the roots of trees. It looks like these ones are on the root of a tree nearby, but it's hard to tell what it is when it's covered in snow and there are many trees around that it could belong to. Although there are plants that grow on other plants that are parasitic, mosses like Hypnum cupressiforme doesn't really bother the tree. They are epiphyte, which means that they only grow on the tree and receive nutrients from water and the sun without damage done to the tree.
This species and the genus as a whole have had frequent taxonomical disputes, some varieties were considered their own species then lumped together with this species as a variety rather than a separate species. The name of the genus and family name comes from the greek word for the god/personification of sleep and subsequently "sleep" which is "hypnos" (ύπνος). 😴 The namesake is from Hypnum cupressiforme's ancient usage as filler for pillow cushions and mattresses. 🛌 Also, Yuuka Kazami is of course well-known for sleeping a lot, too. It's a bit contrary to the nature of the plant being evergreen and not experiencing dormancy like others. Similarly, because it's evergreen also, the common name "Cypress-leaved plaitmoss" and species name "cupressiforme" is named after Cypress trees, the name of many evergreen conifer trees in the Cupressus genus. This is because the stems and leaves make the moss look like a tinier version of the branches and leaves on Cypress trees.
I think we're pretty close to end of winter, but not quite. It's much harder to find flowering and fruiting plants in mid-winter than it is when it's at the early to end. There will be plenty more flowers to show in the coming weeks/months, of course.
don't fall asleep Yuuka! 🙀
the cold winters can make anyone drowsy…. like a cat 😼
the incident wont be solved if I can't fight you while you're awake! 😺
if i fought you while you are asleep, I would be no different than you! 😿
Floral Fumo Fridays of the Week (Belated) New Years Edition: Perennial Plant Dormancy (Plant shown: Rubus occidentalis)
Oops, I was late again! It seems that the winter has made me more sleepy and dormant than usual. 😉 This was supposed to be a new years post, but tbh ppl are still saying "Happy New Years" to me soooo.
Yuuka rampaged through the mountain to get a better view of Gensokyo and its border. She noticed that during her journey, temperatures felt more spring-like and the snow started to melt quicker than before. But winter was just getting started! She knew she hadn't journeyed that long as the sun rose and set as it would during winter. This was a strange phenomenon: The snow should stay throughout the season, but all throughout Gensokyo temperatures had rose and the snow had all melted. Later on in her journey, the temperatures significantly dropped back to winter temperatures, but there was little snowfall. She thinks that this could be related to the rumored "vampire" causing a rampage within Gensokyo.
Yuuka once more peered at various locations in Gensokyo, and noticed another strange phenomenon. For one, the village normally played loud music to celebrate the new year around this time. The music used to be so loud it would be heard across Gensokyo, but this year no music could be heard. Instead, she heard music from another source: a red mansion by the lake. Yuuka knew that this mansion was from the Outside World and has played music for quite some time, so maybe the villagers simply relocated their festivals.
One last time, she looked at another village located on the borders of Gensokyo. The village had a towering mansion situated at its center, and Yuuka thought that the building could be the home of the hibernating sage.
Yuuka thought about this sage, Yukari Yakumo, whom she met a few months ago. She was the only active Gensokyo sage around after the barrier was formed, as the others seemed to have disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Yukari said that she was hibernating for the winter and that her "shikigami" would solve the incident, but the incident had no chance of stopping at this rate. Even worse, temperatures are spring-like and snow is melting, so surely this sage would awaken from her dormancy, right? The only way for Yuuka to find out is to go to this village on the borders of Gensokyo that could be her home, so she then descended from the view of Gensokyo at the mountain.
This one isn't about any specific plant, but it's about a phenomenon that happens in many organisms called dormancy. Dormancy in general is a survival technique used by many organisms during harsh conditions such as winter, where temperatures can average to below freezing temperatures and growth comes to a halt. When it comes to flowering fruit trees and tree-like plants, such as plants in the Rosaceae family, it is used to retain water and nutrients as well. We will use tree-like perennial fruit plants, like this Black Raspberry cane (Rubus occidentalis) as examples, as tree and tree-like perennials that flower and fruit are used as models of the dormancy cycle.
Black Raspberry (Rubus occidentalis) is a plant that is part of the rose (Rosaceae) family just like multifloral rose (rosa multiflora) of a previous post. Rosaceae contains numerous wooded plants and trees in temperate climates that follow a similar dormancy and vernalization pattern, and spring is when we can see a lot of their flowers. The name "Black Raspberry" or "Blackberry" can refer to other species of Rubus with similar colored fruits, so let's ditch these names for now and call it by its formal name Rubus occidentalis. It is native to a wide range of regions in North America, spanning from warmer to colder climates and regions that experience both. The stems of Rubus occidentalis are considered stalks or canes that have a glaucous and powdery sheath. Normally during spring and summer the stalk has a more blue-green look, but when this plant is in a dormant state it looks more haunting with a woody purple-red color. We will talk more about the rest of the features of this plant like the flowers and fruits later on during the spring and/or summer.
When later summer into fall happens, leaves slowly start to turn brown and shed and the stems/bark become discolored. Some plants flower and ripen their fruit at this stage, as we've seen in earlier posts. This phenomenon is called paradormancy, a transitional period between an active growing state and endodormancy that is triggered by various environmental factors outside the plant like shorter days and cooler temperatures. Plants have an internal "clock" to track the passage of winter as they spend time in cold temperatures below room temperature but above freezing (roughly 5-10 degrees celsius) which causes them to eventually stop growing but accumulate chilling and transition to endodormancy later in the fall leading up to winter. We have seen some plants earlier go through this period during the fall with withering leaves and the colors of their stem and bark discoloring until they are completely dormant.
In endodormancy, plants must accumulate a specific amount of chilling units and hours spent in the cold in order to survive the winter and regrow flowers in the spring. Keep in mind, Rubus occidentalis is a perennial plant native to very warm climates, but they are also native to some of the coldest climates, so it can withstand many harsh temperatures below freezing while dormant. At this stage, the ability for the plant to grow is completely halted.
Later on and once it is done accumulating enough chill units, it will enter a period of dormancy called ecodormancy. Some tree and tree-like plants that bloom in late winter and early spring will show buds at this stage or even earlier. At ecodormancy, it is simply waiting for temperatures to get above freezing so it can break free of dormancy. This time, the plant requires heating units rather than chill to become active again. Once it has accumulated enough heating units spending time in temperatures above freezing in spring, perennials will exit the final stage of dormancy and transition to being active and growing again.
Finally, various plants around the world have different methods of dormancy, and there are many things about dormancy that we simply do not know about.
PS: The photos were taken minutes apart and during noon! The first photo was taken earlier than the rest but when i got a photo of the plants themselves clouds immediately blocked the sun so they look more discolored. Here's a rejected photo taken when the clouds covered the sun that I still wanted to post. Also, if you have a garden of Rubus occidentalis or find them in the wild, you can help them grow desirable fruits in the later spring or summer by pruning them around winter.
The fall colors and spring blooms are tell-tale signs of the changing seasons. Have you ever stopped to wonder what makes a tree lose its le
Abstract Attempts to discuss the various aspects of plant dormancy can be bewildering due to the excessive number of nonphysiological, indep
We present an overview of recent molecular advances in bud dormancy in trees, with a particular focus on the integration of common molecular
A warm winter means woody plants will be ready to grow when the weather warms up.
The process by which plants use a prolonged cold period – winter – to promote flowering is known as vernalization…
Floral Fumo Fridays Winter Holidays Edition: Rose Hips 🌹 (Fruit of Roses, from Rosa multiflora)
So this was meant for last week and for winter solstice but I decided to just group the later holidays together. This is about the fruit moreso than the flower, and we will showcase what this flower looks like when it blooms in spring.
After she was done napping, Yuuka set off once more to solve the incident. However, when she woke up from her nap, there was snowfall everywhere! Winter had already begun, and this would mean less sunlight and more clouds and nighttime which is perfect for a former cave-dwelling youkai like Yuuka. Although, she still wants to change her nature. While it may seem like a long time to a human, to an ancient youkai like Yuuka, her nap times usually last years. Luckily, this nap only lasted for a couple of days.
She journeyed farther into Gensokyo, but she realized that there were red fruits on dormant thorny stems that piqued her interest along her path. She knew these to be rose hips which were already drying and rotting. Nonetheless, Yuuka could still use the seeds inside the hips to grow roses in her yard. She began to collect the hips, but smelled something foul and corpselike, she looked to the direction of the foul stench and came across a curious two-tailed cat youkai collecting the hips. This was no ordinary cat youkai, but a blazing kasha from the underground!
"A youkai who's alive?" "A kasha on the surface?" The kasha was surprised by Yuuka as much as Yuuka was surprised by the kasha. "Don't mind me, sis, there's just so many human and youkai corpses here on the surface.... and these rotten fruits right next to the cave too!" the kasha said as she collected many rose hips.
Yuuka thought of nothing but wanting to fight this sassy kasha, so when the cat went back to picking rotten rose hips, Yuuka tried to swing her umbrella at her.
The kasha turned around and greeted Yuuka who was about to swing her umbrella, "My friends call me Orin by the way, it's totes odd how there's so many corpses on the surface, y'know. There's even dead youkai...." Yuuka halted and Orin aimlessly wonders to herself, "Maybe there's a youkai out there who is rampaging around the surface! Attacking one too many humans.... Even attacking fellow youkai! If they're as powerful that they could cause such disaster like this, then maybe I should gather these up before I'm next!"
Yuuka lowers her stance and Orin takes a closer look at Yuuka then says, "Oh, you're still here? Do you want some of these deliciously rotten fruits, too?" Orin continues, "My mistress wanted me to collect fruits around the surface to celebrate some special day that's celebrated in the Outside World nowadays. She says it's supposed to be about sharing gifts to each other, so you can have them if you want, sis!" Orin hands Yuuka some of the rotten rose hips. "Of course, some of them we won't feast on. I was planning to gift some of them to my mistress so she will use the seeds for to grow some roses in our garden as a gift to her sister, too. She says roses are her sister's favorite flower!" Orin cheerily explained.
"You have a garden?" Yuuka widened her eyes.
Orin looks back at Yuuka and tells her, "Oh yes, we literally have a garden all the way in the underground. Maybe you should find shelter away from that youkai there and work in Chireiden! Although, you would still have to fight the oni in the city to get to our palace."
Yuuka declined, "No thanks, I already got kicked out of a mansion I already owned in another cave somewhere else. I'll stick with my little garden on the surface."
"It's like totally understandable, we only grow flowers that don't need too much sunlight. The ravens at our mansion are able to create a ball of light around the courtyard, but it's definitely not as good of a light as the actual sun." Orin said, "Anyways I should get going now, it was nice meeting you, sis. You should be careful about that youkai rampage on the surface," She walked away with her cart and moved onto another area with some fruits.
Yuuka looked at he rose hips that she received, and she had hardly paid attention to what the kasha had said to her. Other than the garden, something else that she said had interested Yuuka. Something about giving gifts? There's plenty of festivals like that that humans celebrate in the village, but youkai don't normally celebrate such things nor even give gifts to each other like that.
These are rose hips, they are the fruit of true roses, which is any flowering bush in the Rosa genus. This one in particular comes from Multiflora rose (Rosa multiflora). Multiflora Roses are of course part of the rose family (Rosaceae) a family that includes many fruits that are enjoyed and used in cooking like apples, cherries, peaches raspberries, and strawberries. True roses are characterized by their sharp thorns and flowers often crossbred to have many different floral shapes. This species is a wild counterpart and ancestor to many cultivated roses and it is native to Japan and other regions of eastern Asia, but has become invasive elsewhere.
Like other fruits in the rose family such as raspberries, rose hips contain many antioxidants and are enjoyed for their high Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) contents. Although nutrient content slightly varies by species and cultivar, one tiny fresh rose hip can contain much more Vitamin C than an orange. Vitamin C is a water soluble (meaning that it is absorbed with water/hydration) produced endogenously by numerous plants and even mammals, but humans in particular have lost such an ability, so humans must consume foods with or take Vitamin C as needed. It has antioxidative effects and helps in the production and function of numerous types of white blood cells. Lack of Vitamin C can result in the historically fatal disease known as scurvy (Vitamin C deficiency), characterized by hair and tooth loss, weakened bones and tissue, internal bleeding and bruising easily. Many fruits and vegetables contain this vitamin, so it normally is not a problem to have a lack of Vitamin C.
Rose hips are found in many wild and cultivated Rosa species throughout the world, and they themselves have many poisonous lookalikes that bear fruit around a similar time. The ones shown here have already dried up and are not fresh. The way to tell the difference is the thorny stems, shape of the leaf and most importantly the flowers in spring. Rose hips usually bear fruit in later summer and fall. If you planted roses by yourself then it should be no surprise that when fall arrives they will grow these fruits once they are done flowering.
The flowers that bloom in spring and thorny stems of Multiflora roses themselves, however, also look similar to the flowers of Rubus (raspberry/bramble genus), another rose family bush. Although, the fruits of Rubus look much different than rose hips and usually bear fruit at an earlier time than rose hips. We will talk more about the flowers and other characteristics of Multiflora rose specifically at a later time.
Winter is a season where many plants have had their leaves shed and either die or become dormant. Winter is often seen as being the "first" season, but sometimes it's spring. Winter solstice is an astronomical phenomenon where one of the axes and hemisphere of the earth are tilted farther from the Sun and when this happens it is also known as the shortest day, with much less daylight and much more nighttime on the hemisphere that experiences this. The opposing axis and hemisphere experiences summer instead. As an example, in December winter will occur for the Northern Hemisphere while the Southern Hemisphere experiences summer. The later days slowly form back until it reaches an equal amount in spring or fall (equinox). This is the origin of the word "solstice," which also comes from the name Sol, the name of a sun god, and the sun is very important for plants. Winter solstice is also often seen as being the death and rebirth of various sun gods in many places.
There are some plants that bear fruit during the winter, but flowers are a rarity in this season until sometime later. What flowers could bloom in winter?
Contents Summary Function Role in immunity Bioavailability Deficiency The RDA Disease Prevention Cardiovascular disease Cancer Type 2 diabet
Rosehips (Rosa spp., Rosaceae) are wild rose bushes with more than 100 species. Its fruits vary in colour and size, depending on the species
Winter Solstice has long marked a time of rebirth, behind it are fascinating astronomical events.
Floral Fumo Friday of the Week: Norway Spruce (Picea abies)
Yuuka continued her travels to solve the incident. At the end of the penultimate season, there was an intense feeling of unique fear and uncertainty within Gensokyo that was felt by all youkai, including Yuuka. She noticed a few drunken youkai laying around the foot of the Mountain. She thought that maybe she could scare the drunkards when they least expected it. Yuuka approached one of the drunkards, as she gently smiled and politely greeted them. Her smile terrified the youkai, who then screamed, "Vampire!" Yuuka looked feintly confused, "Hm? I am nothing like those little birds...." her smile "I'm just here for some stress relief is all. Things feel quite bleak in this world right now, don't you think?"
The area was now clear of other youkai. Yuuka could see many cones scattered across the empty ground and collected them. She eventually felt exhausted from trying to solve the incident and decided to take a quick nap beside a giant spruce tree. When she slowly closed her eyes, she had thought about something that confused her: Why were youkai afraid of vampires? Vampires are usually a rarity in Gensokyo, and Yuuka found the ones that resided in her old mansion to be rather weak like a frail bird. However, she thinks that a vampire could be the first of many clues to this incident.
Today is Friday, but most importantly it is Friday the 13th in December, on a month that takes place at the end of the year, where many are celebrating the holidays and what presents to give to each other, and where many students are taking exams. The feeling of uncertainty over grades, presents and what lies ahead of the new year sends a frightening and chilling fear into many people. Very scary! 🥶
So this one is most definitely not an aster. 😅The branches and pinecones in the photos are from the Norway Spruce(Abies picea), which is part of the Pine family (Pinaceae). It is native to Europe, but has its fame and cultivation for being the typical Christmas Tree, although it isn't ideal to use for that purpose as it can dry out very quickly. This tree can be very giant, growing up to 40-50 meters tall, but there are cultivars of this tree that are grown smaller and fir-looking. These giant trees can live very long lives, too.
These structures that are broken off of the Norway spruce are called cones, noted for their wooded and scale-like structure. Cones are found in all pine family trees. They are often a fan favorite and collected by small critters like squirrels, who break off the wooden scales to consume the seeds or nuts within the cone.
The name Picea for spruces is latin for "pitch-black" and it might refer to the darker colors of the bark of spruces. The name abies in its species name means "fir" and is the literal name of the fir genus, because spruces and firs were usually placed under the same category of "spruce firs" long ago. Nowadays, we know some differences between them so spruces are placed in Picea while firs are placed in Abies. Norway spruces in particular were called almost always called Picea, but like the white snakeroot of a previous post it has been placed under different genera until it was eventually settled back to Picea with the name Picea abies.
Yosemite Nature Notes 46(2) (1977): Who Ate That Cone? by Beth Huning and Linda Yemoto
Description of the evolution, biology, distribution, ecology, and uses of Picea abies (Norway spruce).
Floral Fumo Flutters of the Week: White Snakeroot (Ageratina altissima)
I am a bit late for Friday so this one will not be a friday one.😭 It will be more informative on the plant itself than have a story.
Yuuka Kazami once more took very long to do tasks, and she was tired of it. Although youkai like her don't have a sleep schedule like humans do, Yuuka would sleep for many hours and even weeks. Even when she slept for a very long time, she still felt very exhausted. It takes her many hours on average to prepare food for herself, and many hours to even do any other chore. She was fed up and irritated with the way things were, and feels like the Youkai Sage investigating Gensokyo wasn't doing her job properly. She set off on her own journey to go and pester the Hakurei shrine maiden to solve the incident.
On her journey, she stumbled across tiny white flowers. She sensed a strange energy within them and thought of them to be youkai. Before she could examine them more closely, the flowers fired danmaku right in her face! Yuuka backtracked a little, but felt that she did not want to destroy these youkai flowers. While the flowers continuously and aimlessly fired danmaku, Yuuka plotted very evil thoughts into what she could do next. She thought that she could create (or well, grow) another army of youkai in her new settlement in the Garden of the Sun, and cause another incident. It was very risky as Reimu could very easily exterminate her for causing another incident, but Yuuka was on the verge of disappearing regardless. She thought of a huge reason for taking on this risk: If she could tame these flowers, she could show the humans of Gensokyo that flowers and plants are beautiful, but dangerous and something to be feared. She would finally be able to change her nature much more easily. In her eyes, this idea was perfect.
This is white snakeroot, it is a plant that is native to a wide range in North America, but invasive in other continents. It is another Asteraceae family flower, just like many plants shown previously and has many of the same characteristics. Like the name of the family, the flowers look like a cluster of stars, and these pictures I've taken don't do the flower any justice. It is used by many as a decorative plant and if there are lots that are spread then they can bloom an entire bed of flowers that look like stars in a forest. It can grow and bloom in shaded areas and sunny areas, and tolerates a wide range of soils including grounds in urban areas, drought weathers, and swampy wetlands. Because it is also one of the very last flowers to bloom like other flowers previously shown, bees rely on these flowers that are very rich in nectar to store and use to survive for winter months.
As a bit of a disclaimer: While it is safe for bees/other pollinators and is a beautifully decorative starry plant, all parts of the plant contains an alcoholic toxin (trematol) that is toxic only when ingested to humans and pets and is extremely fatal if not treated in time. Mammals and birds normally avoid consuming white snakeroot because of its aroma, but you should always be cautious when it comes to pets. You should only use this plant for decorative purposes and for decorative purposes only.
In the early 19th century, the name "snakeroot" came from a dangerous misconception that it was a medicine for curing and/or preventing snake bites , so it was given to humans and farm animals to consume. This is not the case, as it lead to a fatal epidemic called "milk sickness" in humans and "the trembles" in animals. Milk sickness was named after the way it was spread from cattle or goats consuming these flowers then spreading the toxin to humans through the afflicted animal's milk.
It has some lookalikes like Boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum, not shown), which not only shares the shape of the flower but also its native range, flower family (Asteraceae), and blooming window. The difference between them is not the shape of the flower pattern but the shape of the leaves and stem of the plant.
Outside of North America where it is native, it has become an invasive species in a few countries such as Japan and Korea. It has an aggressive nature over land and ability to grow in both shaded and sunny areas and in wild and urban areas even in its native continent. It tends to dominate land coverage and could hinder the photosythesis of competing native plants.
The genus name Ageratina of its name is inspired of another genus Ageratum, another Aster family flower that the White snakeroot also used to be placed in. The -ina suffix means smaller version or -like, so Ageratinas are a tinier version of Ageratum or Ageratum-like. The name Ageratum is very old but it and Ageratina derives from ageratos which means non-aging/everlasting, a general word referring to plants that had a vibrant and long lasting bloom and color. The species name altissima is latin for "highest/tallest," as it is the tallest of its genus. This species has gone under many names and one of its first is Ageratum altissimum then later on it was regrouped with the genus of its lookalike (boneset) as Eupatorium rugosum or Eupatorium urticifolium among many other names. These earlier names appear in many early sources but all refer to the same exact white snakeroot plant. Nowadays, the accepted name is Ageratina altissima, very similar to its original name.
Invasive alien species (IAS) not only displace nearby indigenous plants and lead to habitat simplification but also cause severe economic da
Floral Fumo Fridays: Mums (Chrysanthemum 'Fireglow Bronze')
Please remember that when you feel scared or frightened, never forget the times that you felt happy.
When day is dark and times are scared, always remember happy day.
This will be a short one.
Even though the sage had told her that there is an issue with youkai disappearing within Gensokyo, Yuuka still became increasingly more concerned for her status as a youkai. Maybe it wasn't right to change her nature and maybe she would find comfort in the Former Capital where all cavedwellers like her belonged.
It was dawn and the sky was still purple, Yuuka decided to prepare herself a meal for the morning. She was slow at taking ingredients from her cooler. By the time she finished chopping and seasoning her food on a pan, she began to transfer it to her oven. She then opened the curtains of a window and looked outside, and noticed that the day was much brighter and bluer and the Sun was higher, she sulked at how long it took her to even chop her ingredients.
While food was cooking, she went outside of her newly built house and continued to take care of her own mini garden inside the Garden of the Sun, although it was fall and many had already become dormant or withered out from her own inexperience. She was slow moving, and slow at taking care of her garden. She was only partly done with her work in the garden and the sun had already risen to its fullest. However, she looked at her mums (chrysanthemums) and noticed that they had bloomed into a blazing color! She noticed many swarms of bees dancing and collecting nectar from the bushes of flowers. Just looking at the mums gave her such a warm and fiery feeling, it motivated her even just a little bit to move much faster than before. She was even able to summon her doppelganger, a skill that she had once lost, to help her with chores, albeit Yuuka was still as slow as Yuuka can be.
What could be so special about these chrysanthemums Yuuka grew? Who knows!
Chrysanthemums (mums for short) are a genus of flowers that are part of the Asteraceae family. This is the same family as many other late summer and fall flowers like goldenrods, blue wood asters, and sunflowers. Like them, one "flower" is a cascade of many different tinier flowers. They are, like other asters shown before, one of the last flowers before winter and attract bees.
They were first used and cultivated in China during the Shang Dynasty in 15th Century BC. These flowers were also cultivated in Japan around the Heian Period in the 5th Century CE and eventually became the national flower of Japan as it is considered the flower of the Emperor. Mums are also a symbol of the month of November, as it blooms in such bright colors when all other flowers hardly bloom during this month. Now, there are hundreds of cultivars, and this one is "Fireglow Bronze" noted by its both fiery and bronze-like colors of orange and red.
The Chrysanthemum: Its History, Culture, Classification, and Nomenclature by Frederick William Thomas Burbidge
Floral Fumo Double Feature of the Week Second Part Hallow's Day/Hallowmas/Samhain Edition: Low Smartweed/Dog Smartweed (Persicaria longiseta)
So this is the next day, for Fumo Fridays because it lands on a friday and is also a holiday. This first picture does not have the plant I want to show but is made to follow along for story purposes. This tree is a Norway Maple that was shown before. Click here for Part 1
Yuuka noticed that the youkai carrying baskets were in groups, and remembered how Marisa was able to defeat her so easily, so she tries to search for an easy target. She finds a lone and innocent looking youkai in gaudy clothing sleeping on a tree. Yuuka thought of the youkai as weak, so she decided to attack with her giant spark spell at the poor sleeping youkai. After Yuuka attacked, she noticed that her attack didn't even work. The sleeping youkai surely would have woken up, but it never affected her. Yuuka tried to shoot simple bullets at the sleeping youkai, but then she found a gap that was taking in all of the bullets. She tried multiple times to shoot danmaku at the poor sleeping youkai, but gaps would instantly open just to take the bullets then immediately closed as if nothing had ever happened.
Yuuka tried one more trick: She took one big swing of her umbrella at the sleeping youkai's head, but then she woke up!
"Oh dear, I wonder what's with all of the noise?" said the sleeping youkai.
As the umbrella was about to hit, a gap immediately opened in front of the sleeping youkai's face and an arm quickly emerged to grab the umbrella. Yuuka became terrified, "My umbrella!"
"Don't you know it isn't nice to attack a fellow youkai? Have some manners!" The youkai continued, "Hmm, it doesn't look like you're in no position to be attacking youkai. Maybe I should have picked more carefully which youkai come into the Outside during this time, I guess I'll escort you back... Although I'm supposed to be hibernating right now."
A gap had taken the two back to a much more familiar place. A swampy area in Gensokyo.
"Just what was that all about anyways? Why was I in the Outside? Outsiders don't fear youkai like me anymore," Yuuka questioned her.
"Now now, it was just a mistake. I didn't understand that you are fading. Belief and fears in youkai are accelerated during this season in the outside to the point where it becomes much safer for youkai to tour, so I simply bring in many random youkai to participate in the "harvest" around the Outside for a while. I didn't understand your situation so well though," the youkai answered.
"Fading? I'm fading?" Yuuka became worried.
"Pardon me, I'm Yukari Yakumo, the Youkai Sage. Although I'm hibernating right now like the other sages. It seems a number of youkai are weakening recently. Perhaps I should have Ran investigate for me."
"Yuuka Kazami, I've never met you personally before. I just made my own world because not even Gensokyo suited me, but then they kicked me out." Yuuka sighed.
"I see, sorry about that. I do not think yours to be an original incident, the number of humans in Gensokyo have dwindled, it's threatening the balance of the world as we know it. Since I am hibernating, I will have my shikigami handle these matters for me," Yukari continued, "In the meantime, you don't look so well. Maybe you should mind your manners and focus more on attacking humans more instead of attacking anyone that you please, though. Especially a youkai in such a dying state as yourself."
Yuuka sulked, "Well, where I landed there were only other youkai around. So I thought humans were no more."
Yukari giggled, "Oh... You didn't mistake humans dressing in costumes as youkai? Let me explain: It's a western tradition on the Outside for humans to dress up as youkai in hopes that youkai won't attack them! Although, the tradition has spread to Japan in recent years, too. Surely, a youkai as old as you would know of it, right?"
Yuuka thought about it for a moment, and became flustered. She flew away out of embarassment
Yuuka was relieved for a moment that her feeling so weak and fading was not her own individual issue, but a larger issue affecting Gensokyo. For a long while after she started her plot to change her "nature," she felt alive, she was in her own fantasy as if there was nothing to stop her. The reality was that she was fading, dying. Surely, hopefully, it has to do with this particular incident occurring within Gensokyo, and not her own plans.
Hallow's day(originally Samhain in Gaelic, pronounced sauin, means summer's end) was originally an Irish-Scots (it was both) holiday about liminality, the many interpretations which were passed through mostly oral tongue is that the boundaries between reality and fantasy that were said weaken through "gaps"/portals to allow supernaturals to travel from the illusion world to the reality, and they would play pranks on humans on this day. To prevent supernaturals from attacking, humans would dress up as the supernaturals themselves.
Another more familiar interpretation it was also celebrated at the boundaries between summer and winter (autumn), light and darkness, life and death. so it would be ghosts that would enter and pull pranks. A necrofantasia if you will.
Only the eve is celebrated nowadays instead of the actual day, and thus, Halloween which is a mashup word of Hallow's eve. Because there are many interpretations to the festival because it was mostly passed through oral tongue and tradition, everyone has their own "truth" or their own "world" of celebrating. Also I am a bit late for this one.
The first photo is the Norway Maple, but I already talked about that one.
The flowers in the second photo are the Low Smartweed or Dog Smartweed. The name of the genus is a bit hard to explain: Persica is the latin name for peach, but that word was named after the Persian Empire/Persia (Iran) long ago. Persica is often given to a scientific species names that are native to Iran and other surrounding areas (like Syringa persica, Persian Lilac). Persicaria as in the genus of flowers refers to the flowers mostly being pink like a peach, but there are still many that coincidentally bloom in Iran, too.
This flower is native to most of Asia. It is oftentimes confused with the more popular Lady's Thumb(Persicaria maculosa), another plant with a much larger native range, and american persicarias. All persicarias have a characteristic of appearing in swampy areas, and is considered a weed by many. The difference between them is easier to find not by its flowers, but by the leaves (A lady's thumb is smaller and has a spot in the middle of mostly each leaf, while a low smart weed gradually grows dark) and the stringlike parts of the branches. Many persicarias are sometimes foraged and have different flavors, but they tend to be peppery and spicy like a cayenne pepper.
Persicarias are a fragile annual plant that does not last long but spreads quickly. It gives one final cluster of blooms before winter, before its eventual and quick death. Although Dog smartweed is invasive to the Americas like the Norway Maple, and considered a "pest" even in places that it's native to. Unlike the Norway Maple, it is much easier to remove and kill. There are persicarias all around the world, and many nonnative ones in one place are lookalikes to native ones in another. If you can identify them as native to your area then it is best to leave them alone.
The Norway Maple looks like it's dying because of the leaves falling, but it's a perennial plant that is very sturdy and lives, and the tree will grow new ones. The Low smartweed looks like it's living because it blooms flowers, but it's fragile, at its final breath and will eventually die.
Also this post was made so late there are only a few hours until Nov 1st is dead everywhere in the world.
Persicaria... and fumos are a type of doll... Hmm....
By Ken Borgfeldt Walking Oklawaha Greenway as many days as I have this past COVID -19 season, I began to notice that there were several Smar
Floral Fumo Double Feature of the Week Halloween Edition (There are two parts the next is tomorrow): Norway Maple (Acer platanoides)
Tonight is Halloween, which is a mashup name for Hallow's Eve, but its also on a Thursday which is not a Friday but the day before Friday. Technically, Halloween, Oct 31st is the eve while Nov 1st is the actual day. Nonetheless, both are celebrated equally as connected holidays together. So this week will have two posts. Click here for Part 2
Yuuka herself has already found herself in a place that clearly wasn't Gensokyo. She knew it to be the Outside World, but didn't understand why she is here or why she is able to live when outsiders no longer believed nor feared in youkai like her. She has however seen plenty of other youkai with baskets, but no humans were to be found. Have youkai and vengeful ghosts won their grudges against humanity and surpassed its existence?
It didn't matter to her though. Even if all there were was youkai in the world, Yuuka would always find ways to prank anyone, it's her way of living.
This is the Norway Maple (Acer platanoides). Fitting for its stage name, its native to Norway, but it is also native to a good chunk of the rest of Europe and its range even extending to Central Asia. They are noted in the Fall by their brightly yellow and large leaves. This tree continues to live on, even through the hottest hots and the coldest colds, through air pollution to even growing in partial sunlight.
Unfortunately, because the tree is able to live in harsh conditions, it has become invasive to North America where it competes for terrain with other maples that are native. Once it has grown old enough, it becomes a very hard task to get rid of through its strong sturdy roots and keeps living through improper removal.
Unlike native North American maples, the tree's sap doesn't yield sap worthy of making with maple syrup, and it is much more difficult to work with when maple syrup making. The maple tree most associated with maple syrup is the Sugar Maple(Acer saccharum) which is not pictured and has a far higher harvest yield than the Norway Maple.
AS A DISCLAIMER DON'T EAT RANDOM MUSHROOMS FROM THE WILD WITHOUT EXPERIENCE!!
I wanted to post this for Mushroom Day, but it took me forever to find mushrooms.
Yuuka tries to look for more ways to change her "nature" as a youkai. She ponders and walks along a tree branch, but then encounters Marisa Kirisame. She asks Marisa what humans find about plants that are scary, but Marisa tells her that she's "in her way." Marisa engages in a danmaku battle with Yuuka, and defeats her quite easily, albeit too easily. She questions on why Yuuka has downgraded from final boss to just a simple midboss. Yuuka explains once more that she is trying to change her "nature" and wants to become a youkai of flowers.
Marisa tells her that nobody finds flowers as scary, she points to the mushrooms feeding on dead tree branches. "Flowers don't really bloom during fall or winter, and no human finds flowers to be scary. If you want to change your nature, then why not become a youkai of mushrooms? They live in caves, like you! And these ones feed on the corpses of plants, that's something people find scary," Marisa said. Yuuka insists that mushrooms are still something associated with darkness, and that there must be something that humans find frightening about flowers.
Marisa questions her, "If you're a youkai of darkness, then why are your attacks based on light? You could even transform into a ball of light, too you know." Yuuka explains that she was manifested from human fears of the illusion of "light" inside a dark cave. Yuuka tells her that she has been that way for so long, that she has become bored of doing so. Marisa tells her that it's fall, almost winter, and there aren't really any flowers that bloom right now. She tries to convince Yuuka that maybe she might find fears by being a youkai of all florals. Yuuka thinks about it more, and flies off very slowly.
She still thinks about humans not finding flowers and plants to be scary and frightening. She sees the Sun burning her skin, and becomes saddened that she hasn't changed, she still cannot bask in the Sun like plants, and finds shade under trees whose leaves are falling apart. She takes note to bring a parasol next time.
Humans used to think of fungi and multicellular protists as plants long ago, but even those of Gensokyo can differentiate between plants, protists, and fungi. They are however, all still called "flora" to this day.
END OF STORY
Afterward: I believe, the mushrooms shown are young forms of stereum. There are many species of them, and some are debatably separated into their own species. They are all under an umbrella term called Wood Decay Fungi, which are scavengers of trees. All stereums are poisonous to humans. Most Wood Decay Fungi attack plants when they are alive and act as a pathogen to them, and a pest to gardeners. Some Wood Decay Fungi are terminal to the plant and eventually lead to the death of the plant.
This link below is one of many Wood Decay Fungi.
Maryland Biodiversity Project catalogs Maryland's living things.
Although, Wood Decay Fungi prey on trees, it is not without reason. These plant pathogens are just as important as trees in the laws of nature. They revert them to fertile soils with lots of nutrition so more plants can grow in the future.
Floral Fumo Friday of the Week: Blue Wood Aster(Symphyotrichum cordifolium)
Yuuka is very sleepy and slow at moving so she is always late! But Friday is still happening somewhere in the world so this is the one proper Floral Fumo Friday for now. I've actually noticed that some bees are accidentally photobombed in the photos I've taken too.
This week's flora is Blue Wood Aster aka Heartleaf Aster (Symphyotrichum cordifolium)! As you can guess by its name or maybe how similar it looks, it's a member of the same flower as sunflowers and the goldenrods of a previous post, the Aster family, starflower family or Asteraceae. This flower is very fragrant, and while the flower disc only appears in shades of blue to white, flower clusters in the middle of the disc go from yellow to purple over time.
The word "aster" means star, flowers and other flora are like stars of the earth. Like the sun seen in the day and some other stars seen in the night sky are one star, some flowers are simply just one flower. Other stars appear to be one star but are actually a cluster of many different stars. Flowers in the Aster family are similar where a flower looks like simply one single flower but it is actually a cluster of tinier flowers at the center, and the petals outside of the cluster is a disc. This makes them extremely popular to pollinators who are preparing for winter, because more flowers means more nectars to collect from.
Reimu and Marisa are here to investigate strange flowers appearing around the shrine. They find none other than the terrible, fearsome youkai, Yuuka Kazami, around said flowers. Reimu becomes suspicious because she has caused an incident before, then Yuuka tells Reimu that she doesn't want to fight today. She explains to Reimu and Marisa that she wants to change the nature of herself as a youkai, because she has seen humans, animals, and flowers today change their own nature from what they were when she was still young. She wants to grow and change from being a youkai that lives in darkness to a youkai of flowers and nature. Reimu and Marisa note that she is not using her parasol and see some marks on her face, but Yuuka quickly brushes it off.
Marisa questions where the flowers are from, Yuuka says that she has never seen them before, either, but they look like the flowers of the garden that she has moved into. She tells both Reimu and Marisa, "You may not understand yet, or maybe nobody has told you yet, but the world we're in right now is a closed space from the rest of the world separated by a barrier, and things that are lost and forgotten end up here. Of course, the Hakurei Shrine, the abandoned village filled with cats, my old home, and these flowers are on that same barrier."
She explains that after she caused an incident before and lost, the residents of Mugenkan thought of Yuuka as being too polite to humans by letting Reimu and Marisa run amok in the mansion and going too easy on them. They thought that she became too old to do her job as Headmistress even though she claims that being 4987 years old is not that old. She tells Reimu that she has found a new home in Gensokyo, and has merged the Fantasy World and Mugenkan with a world created by two twin demons, then gave the mansion and its region of the now-merged world up to them.
She looks at a bee and says that the Queen Bees have it more crueler. The Queen is not actually the ruler, if the queen grows older and doesn't do her job, the Hive kills her and replaces her with a new one. To Yuuka, she had it much easier and just gave her Mugenkan away. Reimu and Marisa both become startled by her words, but she tells them that bees have much more mortal lives than humans. Their drive is to make sure their hive lives on to create new bees, so flowers of a plant, some also just as mortal as a bee, can be pollinated. There are many tiny beasts like honeybees, and almost every flower needs them to grow even more flowers; she tells Reimu and Marisa that they would never experience the joy of sweet fruits like apples or cherries if it wasn't for those tiny beasts and their hard work.
Reimu and Marisa afterwards say that she talks too much, and both proceed to fight her and kick her out of the area by the Hakurei Shrine.
By the way, the honeybee (Apis mellifera) in the second pic is a photobomb. I didn't even notice her there when I originally took it, so I made a story about it.
Floral Fumo of the Week: Canadian Goldenrod(Soldago canadensis) [Also Happy Fall]!
(i took this picture a few days ago and i know its not friday but its fall equinox so)
Today is the first day of fall, which means that there is an equal amount of daylight and nighttime today
These florals for the week are Canadian goldenrod (Soldago canadensis). They are flowers that bloom during fall, and they attract lots of pollinators like butterflies and bees. This is one of the last flowers to bloom for bees to collect nectar for the hive to prepare to live on and huddle together for winter.
The name of the species is obvious that they're native to (mostly) Canada. Despite having "sol" in the name, the genus name "solidago" isn't named after the sun, but these flowers are part of the same family as sunflowers (asteraceae) which Yuuka Kazami is known for. Instead, they are named after a fusion word from solidus/solida(means solid/whole/true/strength)and the -ago suffix makes it "to drive/become" so solidago means "to become whole/true/stronger" because it was once used as medicine centuries ago.
Like how one sunflower is actually a cluster of smaller flowers (florets) called pseudanthium, one closer look at a single "flower" on any branch and you can see that those are a cluster of even tinier flowers.
Also I have one more non-fumo related thing to show:
I quickly found and took a picture of a butterfly while i was trying to take a picture of Yuuka. It blends easily but it's called great spangled fritillary(argynnis/speyria cybele). The genus name is often disputed, sometimes it is called argynnis with speyria being classed as a subgenus, and some consider speyria to be its own genus separate from argynnis. The species is named after Cybele("Mother Nature") that was worshipped for so long at the city of catalhoyuk in what is now Turkey that most information of her is lost. A lot of butterflies tend to be named after gods like this.
