Local Plants: Koyaboki (“Koya Broom”; Pertya scandens)
This small deciduous (seasonally shedding) shrub grows in sunny locations in and around woodlands, hills, and mountains. Koyaboki is used for the bristles of the stiff brooms employed by Buddhist monks to sweep the vast Koyasan temple complex in Wakayama Prefecture on the other side of the Seto Inland Sea, hence the name. It ranges in height from around 50 centimeters to 1 meter, and has slender but sturdy branches. The heart-shaped leaves that appear alternately along the branches have sparse teeth around their edges. From September to October, flowers with a diameter of roughly 1 centimeter bloom at the ends of the year’s new branches. The small seeds, which feature reddish-brown thistledown at the tips, are scattered here and there by the wind.