Japanese name: ミズバショウ（水芭蕉） Scientific name:Lysichiton camtschatcense
[Overview]
A perennial up to 1 m tall, common in the north, often growing in colonies in wet places such as mountain marshes and along flowing water in alder forests.
It has thick underground stems.
The leaves are small at flowering, but after flowering they grow into large ellipses about 80–100 cm long and 30 cm wide.
Just after the snow melts, it sends up a flower stalk 10–30 cm tall, wrapped in a white spathe and bearing a club-shaped spadix.
The flowers are pale green, with 4 petals and 3.5–4 mm across, and are borne in large numbers on the surface of the spadix.
The fruit is a green berry; when ripe it falls into the water and is carried along by the current.
[Notes]
The Japanese name compares the large leaves that appear after the flowers to those of the basho (Japanese banana).
