Japanese name: ウメガサソウ（梅笠草） Scientific name:Chimaphila japonica
[Overview]
An evergreen small low shrub 5–10 cm tall, found on seashores, in somewhat dry hills, and in mountain woods.
The rhizome is long and creeping.
Leaves are simple, borne 2–4 at a time in a whorl-like arrangement, oblong to lanceolate, 2–3.5 cm long and 0.5–1.3 cm wide, thick, with a pointed tip.
The leaf margins have sharp serrations all the way to the base.
The leaves have short petioles.
Between each tier of leaves there are alternate scale leaves.
A long flower stalk emerges from the stem tip, bearing fine dotted hairs and 1–3 broadly lanceolate bracts.
One flower, rarely two in a corymb, is borne at the tip of the flower stalk and faces downward.
The flowers are white, about 1 cm across, with 5 petals.
There are 10 stamens.
There are 5 sepals, narrowly ovate to broadly lanceolate with a slightly pointed tip, about as long as the petals, and they remain until the fruiting stage.
The fruit is an oblate capsule 0.6–0.7 cm across, which faces upward when ripe.
[Notes]
The Japanese name comes from the flowers, which are shaped like those of ume (Japanese apricot) and open downward like a hat.
