Japanese name: カンツバキ（寒椿） Scientific name:Camellia sasanqua ‘Shishigashira’
[Overview]
Although it has "tsubaki" (camellia) in its name, it is a cultivar of sasanqua (Sazanka).
The branches spread strongly horizontally, and the twigs are hairy at first.
Unlike camellia, the leaves have hairs on the stalk and on the midrib on both sides, and lack the scattered blackish-brown dots on the underside.
The flowers are borne at the branch tips and are red, medium-sized and double.
When they fall, the petals drop separately.
It is the plant that was called 'Shishigashira' in the Kansai region, and is said to have come to be called "Kantsubaki" in the Kanto region from 1933 onward.
The so-called Tachi-kantsubaki (upright Kantsubaki) is a different cultivar known as 'Kanjiro'.
[Cultivation]
It is strongly resistant to cold and to salt wind.
Care is needed against the tea tussock moth (Chadokuga).
