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[Magnolias near Osaka Business Park. Photo © Ad Blankestijn]

On the banks of the Neyagawa River near Osaka Business Park (Kyobashi Station) stands a row of magnolia trees which were in full bloom last week. They do not last long, so yesterday during lunch time I hastened out with my camera cell phone to get a few pictures.

[Magnolias near Osaka Business Park. Photo © Ad Blankestijn]

These white magnolias are a sort of enlarged cherry blossoms, of course thicker and harder, but falling just as fast.

Linda Inoki writes in the Japan Times:

Magnolias were among the earliest flowering plants to appear on Earth, hundreds of millions of years ago. When great ice sheets covered much of the Northern Hemisphere, more than 2 million years ago, magnolias survived in the warmer forests of Asia and America.

There are two Japanese terms for magnolias: kobushi is the native variant, the wild mountain magnolia, mokuren the larger type (pink or white) introduced from China in the 7th century. I think the ones in Osaka Business Park are kobushi.

[Magnolias near Osaka Business Park. Photo © Ad Blankestijn]

Usually, the river here is pitch-black, the white magnolias gave it at least some color! Here they are bending in the strong wind, almost getting blown away.

[Osaka Business Park. Photo © Ad Blankestijn]

See the World Kigo Database for haiku on magnolias.