Forests of Cape Jizozaki Park 地蔵崎園地周辺の植生

Official explanation

The inland areas of the Shimane Peninsula were formerly covered with pine forests (Pinus thunbergii). Most of these pine trees, however, were lost in a nematode infection that started around 1980. Today the forest consists primarily of evergreen broad-leaved trees such as machilus or Japanese bay tree (Machilus thunbergii), Japanese camellia (Camellia japonica), and Japanese privet (Ligustrum japonicum).

Washed by the warm Tsushima Current, the area around Cape Jizozaki Park has a broad diversity of plant life. The hamabiwa or Japanese litsea (Litsea japonica) is an evergreen shrub with thick, 15 cm–long leaves that are covered with thick hair on the undersides. These leaves resemble those of the biwa or Japanese loquat (Eriobotrya japonica). The “hama” in the name indicates a coastal species. The Shimane Peninsula is the easternmost limit in distribution for the Japanese litsea.

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From the top: Japanese litsea leaves; dense hair on leaf underside

出典: 地域観光資源の多言語解説文データベース（観光庁） — www.mlit.go.jp/tagengo-db. この英語解説文は観光庁の地域観光資源の多言語解説整備支援事業で作成しました。
Source: Japan Tourism Agency, Multilingual Explanation Database. This English text was produced by the Japan Tourism Agency's multilingual explanation project and is shown unedited. Opening hours and services may have changed since it was written.