Fall Flowers' Season Started! How About Going To See Japanese Spider Lilies?

Japanese spider lily, “Higan-Bana” is one of the typical fall flowers in Japan. It has been growing all over Japan for long time, but it probably came from overseas because the genetics of this flowers all over Japan are identical. It is thought that one bulb was imported initially and was propagated by dividing the bulbs.

It seems that the climate in Japan well suited for this flower, so today people can enjoy seeing this flower growing abundantly in many places. Kinchakuda in Hidaka City, Saitama prefecture is one of the famous places shown in the photos above and about five million Higan-Bana flowers bloom every fall. Between September 17th to October 2nd will be the festival of Higan-bana, there.

Actually the name “Higan-Bana” means “Flower of The Other Shore”, in other word it is “Flower of Afterlife World”. Moreover it has many other names such as “Heaven’s flower”, “Dead people’s flower”, “Hell’s flower” and “Ghost’s flower”, so some people may not enjoy this flower just because of the ominous name.

Why do the names have unpleasant meaning? Probably one of the reasons came from a well-known fact that this flower is actually a dangerous plant. It is a poisonous plant with an alkaloid so that it can be deadly.

However, for just Hanami (seasonal flower viewing), it is harmless and provides us a fantastic view of fall.