Large and ancient trees in Hashikami Town

Category:

Japanese wisteria ( Wisteria floribunda )

Estimated Age:

Unknown

Root Circumference:

2.0m

Height:

25.0m

It is located near the bell hall of Terashita Kannon Temple and is wrapped around an oak tree like a giant snake.
It produces blue-purple flowers in early summer.

The Japanese name "Fuji" is said to come from the fact that the flowers scatter with every wind.
Wisteria grows wild in Japan, China, and North America, but Wisteria nodafuji is a species endemic to Japan, found in the low mountains and plains of Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu. They often grow naturally on rocky areas and other places with poor footing.

It is a tree that has been loved since ancient times, used as material for making chairs and baskets, and planted to create ornamental wisteria trellises.

Ranked among the largest in Aomori Prefecture

Category:

Dawn redwood ( Metasequoia glyptostroboides )

Estimated Age:

Unknown

Circumference:

3.2m

Height:

27.0m

Its Japanese name is "Akebonosugi", but this name is not widely used and it is more commonly called "Metasequoia".

Metasequoias are thought to have appeared in the Late Cretaceous Period (100.5 million to 66 million years ago), and their fossils have been found frequently in strata from the Tertiary Period (64.3 million to 2.6 million years ago) in eastern Siberia, Japan, and North America. Fossils have also been discovered in the surrounding area of ​​Ninohe City, Iwate Prefecture.
It was discovered in 1941 in Mataoxi Village, Sichuan Province, China (now Lichuan City, Hubei Province, China), and was found to have survived to the present day.

It is thought to have grown in abundance in Japan from around 3 million to 1 million years ago, and does not seem to have evolved much since then.
It is the only extant species in the Metasequoia genus and is also known as a "living fossil." It is listed as an endangered species on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List.

Category:

Japanese Red Pine ( Pinus densiflora )

Estimated Age:

300 years

Circumference:

1.94m

Height:

2.0m

Under good conditions, Japanese red pines can grow up to 30 meters in height, but this "Dragon God Pine" is a small tree, and has an extremely unusual shape, growing more than 17 meters straight out from a single root.

It grows widely from Honshu to Shikoku and Kyushu, but it may be said that the red pine is a tree that is especially beloved in eastern Japan, for example, Japan's largest red pine was once located in Mogami Town, Yamagata Prefecture (estimated to be 600 years old, it no longer exists as it died and was cut down in 2021), and Iwate Prefecture has designated the Nanbu red pine as the prefectural tree.

Category:

Ginkgo ( Ginkgo biloba )

Estimated Age:

800 years

Circumference:

10.1m

Height:

23.0m

Ginkgo trees are widely used as roadside trees and are commonly seen throughout Japan.
Aomori Prefecture is known as the ginkgo kingdom, with 30 confirmed ginkgo trees measuring over 7 metres in circumference.

It is one of the oldest tree species in the world that still remains today, and although it has characteristic broad leaves, it is not a broadleaf tree as it is not an angiosperm, and although it is a gymnosperm it is not a conifer, so it retains its ancient form.
They appeared in the Permian period (299 million to 251 million years ago) and spread throughout the world, but disappeared from various places in the Cenozoic period (65 million years ago to present), and became extinct in Japan 1 million years ago. The ginkgo trees currently seen in Japan are thought to have originated in China and were introduced to Japan sometime around 1,200 years ago.

It is the only surviving species in the Ginkgo family, and is listed as an endangered species on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List as a "living fossil."