Plants (short version)
From luscious forests to rugged coastlines, mountains to shallow bays, Ise-Shima National Park is home to a wide range of plant life.
Trees in Ise-Shima’s forests and mountains are mostly evergreen. Old-growth vegetation remains in the conserved area of the forest of Ise Jingu, the most important jinja (Shinto shrine) in Japan. Here, coniferous trees and evergreen broad-leaved (laurel) trees mingle. The ubame-gashi oak (Quercus phillyraeoides) grows in the second-growth forest of Ise-Shima National Park. The timber is used as a raw material for charcoal.
In the early spring, kobanomitsuba tsutsuji (Rhododendron reticulatum), a species of azalea, blooms pale purple in a number of areas, including the Yokoyama Picnic Site and Tomoyama Park. In winter, yabutsubaki (Camellia japonica), one of the commonly seen indigenous plants of Ise-Shima, blooms red on Mt. Konpira.
Unique coastal plants grow in the open sand dunes on beaches such as Shima’s Koshirahama and Hironohama. Poison bulb (Crinum asiaticum) display thin white flower petals in July and August. In early August, visitors can enjoy hamabo’s (Hibiscus hamabo) yellow flowers on the shores of Gokasho Bay, Ago Bay, and Matoya Bay.
The seas around Ise-Shima are relatively shallow, providing the perfect environment for various species of seaweed such as hijiki (Sargassum fusiforme) and agar weed (Gelidiaceae).