Thursday, May 30, 2013

5 Photos of the Heritiera littoralis Tree from Okinawa, Japan

One Heck of a Tree

 

In Higashi Village they call this beauty the Sakishima Sappanwood Tree.

The good folks at the local museum gave me a pamphlet, I used to track down a Latin name.

サキシマスウノキ, is what they called it.

So, I ran that through some internetty things, I use, sometimes in my research.

And, BINGO !  I came up with the scientific words Heritiera littoralis.


This tree has been designated a natural monument and, I can see why.


 It had me running around in circles to show everybody what a gem it really is.


There aren't any trees like this in my hometown.


They have a place where people make offerings and a small waterfall at the site.


This happens to be the biggest tree, of this type, on the whole island of Okinawa.

It wouldn't be nice of me to just show you one photo so, I took five.

If I get a chance, after rainy season is over, maybe, I'll go back and shoot 100 more !


Sources:


Okinawan Plants


For Directions to see this natural wonder:  Map It Okinawa









2 comments:

Sherry said...

I'd say it's scary but stunning. Why are the most beautiful things the ones we are most afraid of? So glad you found it.

RyukyuMike said...

Sherry,
Aw, it wasn't scary being there. I bet you would have taken several hundred more photos than me !