In Japan, the springtime bloom of cherry blossoms is an annual rite of celebration, accompanied by picnics and parties under the flowering canopy. But this…
In Japan, the springtime bloom of cherry blossoms is an annual rite of celebration, accompanied by picnics and parties under the flowering canopy.
But this week, an odd thing happened: Some of the trees bloomed again. In autumn.
Japanese broadcaster NHK reported that a weather company had received hundreds of reports of the trees blooming, across an area stretching from Kyushu, in southwestern Japan, to Hokkaido in the north.
The apparent cause? The two typhoons that struck the country in September and early October .
“This year’s storms affected wide regions and the strong winds may have caused the blooming,” tree surgeon Hiroyuki Wada told the broadcaster. “I have never seen anything like this.”
Wada explained that a popular variety of cherry blossom tree, the Yoshino cherry, buds in the summer but does not usually bloom, because a hormone the tree’s leaves release stops the buds from developing.
