wedding cake tree

Cornus controversa

The birthday flower of May 9

Location: Akagi Nature Park
Location: Akagi Nature Park
Location: Tsukuba Botanical Garden
Location: Tsukuba Botanical Garden
Location: Tsukuba Botanical Garden

Flower name
wedding cake tree
Scientific name
Cornus controversa
Alias車水木, クルマミズキ, 水木, コルヌス・コントロヴェルサ
Place of originAfghanistan to Taiwan, China and Japan
Place of floweringLow mountains, Park
Flowering seasonMay, June

What is wedding cake tree

Birth flowers for May 9

The birthday flower of May 9: is wedding cake tree (Cornus controversa )です。
A drop of flowers and poetry, one each day. From Kagiken's Flower Guide, we deliver words that bloom softly in your heart.
Aqua (Waterdrop Poetry), Copilot(Illustration), Editing & Translation: Mizuho @Kagiken.

wedding cake tree, Illustration by Copilot
Note: The Japanese text in the illustration has the same meaning as Aqua's water droplet poem.
Aqua is a water spirit.

💧wedding cake tree’s Droplet Poem “White Drops Blooming Toward the Sky”

By Aqua

On an afternoon when the spring light was gently streaming down,
the tips of the Mizuki branches bloomed white.

It looked just as if
drops that had scattered toward the sky
had returned once more as flowers.

The droplet looked up at the branch tip
and whispered softly,
“I can go back to the sky, too…”

The Mizuki flower swayed in the breeze
and replied gently,
“A droplet can go anywhere.”

At those words,
a soft glow lit up deep within the droplet’s heart,
and a single light, like a firefly, was born.

To the sky, to the forest, to the water.
Shizuku’s journey
continues quietly, even today.

Wedding cake tree

Wwedding cake tree or Mizuki (Cornus controversa) is a deciduous tree native to Japan, the Korean Peninsula, Taiwan, and China, belonging to the genus Cornus in the family Cornaceae.
It is also known as Kuruma-mizuki. In Japan, it grows wild from Hokkaido to Kyushu.

It grows to a height of 1,000–1,500 cm. Its branches extend horizontally in tiers, giving the tree a distinctive crown.
The petiolate leaves are oblong to ovate, 5–19 cm long, with entire margins, and are arranged alternately.
From May to June, it produces panicles 8–15 cm long, with numerous white, four-petaled flowers (0.8–1 cm in diameter, with four stamens) densely clustered at the branch tips.
Clusters of these small white flowers line the upper surfaces of the branches that have grown over the past few days, giving the appearance of a white canopy.
In October, drupes form and ripen to a purplish-black color.
Uses include the tree as a park tree and the wood for craftwork.

Common name: Mizuki (Cornus),
Scientific name: Cornus controversa,
Also known as: Kuruma-mizuki (Car-mizuki),
Native to: China, South Korea, the Himalayas, Japan, Distribution: ,
Life Form: Deciduous tree,
Classification: Kingdom Plantae, Angiosperms, Eudicots, Order Cornales, Family Cornaceae, Genus Cornus,
Height: 1000–1500 cm,
Petiole: 4 cm, Leaf length: 8–15 cm, Leaf width: 7 cm, Leaf shape: Oblong to ovate, Leaf color: Dark green (upper surface),
light green (lower surface); turns red in autumn,
Leaf margin: Entire, Leaf arrangement: Alternate,
Flowering period: May–June, Inflorescence type: Cymose or corymbose, Inflorescence diameter: 8–15 cm, Corolla: 4-petaled, spreading,
Number of petals: 4, Dichotomous corolla, Flower color: White, Flower diameter: 0.8–1 cm, Number of stamens: 4,
Fruiting period: October, Fruit type: Drupe, Fruit shape: Spherical, Fruit diameter: 1 cm, Fruit color: Purple-black,
Uses: Park tree, timber.

wedding cake tree (Cornus controversa )