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Dogtooth Violet🌷
Erythronium japonicum
カタクリ
A perennial that blooms on the forest floor in spring and is a quintessential spring ephemeral. It takes 7–9 years from seed to first flowering. The flower nods downward with tepals strongly recurved in a distinctive form. The aboveground parts die back in early summer, and the plant spends summer through the following spring underground. Starch from the roots was the original source of katakuriko (now mostly produced from potato starch).
Identification Points
- ✓Pink to pale purple tepals curve strongly backward in a nodding flower in spring
- ✓Only two basal leaves, with purple mottling
- ✓Aboveground parts present only in spring, dying back in early summer
- ✓Grows in colonies on the floor of deciduous broadleaf forests
Habitat
Forest floor of deciduous broadleaf woodlands
Season
March–May (flowers)
Morphological TraitsAI-estimated, needs verification
Leaf arrangement
Alternate
Leaf type
Simple
Venation
Parallel
Leaf margin
Entire
Leaf shape
Linear
Growth form
Herb
Petal count
3 petals
Petal fusion
Free
Flower color
Pink
Flowering season
Spring
Habitat
Forest
Phylogenetic Positionユリ科 →
Phylogenetic Position
Angiosperms > Monocots > Liliales > Liliaceae
Divergence Era
Late Cretaceous
Evolution Notes
Spring ephemerals evolved a strategy of flowering and fruiting during the "window of light" before the canopy of deciduous forests leafs out, then spending the summer dormant underground.
View on evolution timeline →Sources & References
AI-generated, needs verification