The unique flower, Zazenso, are blooming now !

Today, I went to see a natural habitat where Zazenso has been growing in colonies at Takashima city, Shiga prefecture.　

Zazen-so was named after its resemblance to a meditating monk. Zazen means the sitting posture when a Buddhist monk has a meditation in a cross-legged position. 

I think “so” of Zazen-so has two meanings, namely a monk and a grass. Both of them have the same pronunciation in Japanese.  

More specifically, its large purplish-brown spathe (a covering leaf of a plant) resembles the halo of a Buddha statue, while the yellow flower inside resembles a monk.　A halo belongs to the Buddhist terminology, so it's difficult for me to explain exactly.   

Many of the flowers seen from the aisle for visitors were facing backwards or sideways somehow.　So, it was a little difficult to look for the flowers facing towards me.

It was raining lightly today, but it looked vivid that way.　

As a closely related plant, Mizubasho is well known. But Mizubasho blooms in early summer and has a white covering leaf, on the other hand Zazenso blooms in February and has a purple leaf.