During the rainy season, a smoke tree with fluffy ears wrapping around the entire tree sways softly at the entrance of the park.  Smoke tree is a tree with a name that imagines smoke regardless of the country, such as the English name “smoke tree” and the Japanese name “kemuri-no-ki”.  It is distributed over a wide area from Southern Europe to the Himalayas and China, and the tree height is about 3 to 5 m.  From early summer to midsummer, female trees bear about 20 cm long spikes.  After the flowers have bloomed, the remaining shaft part becomes like feathers, and it is characterized by the appearance of smoke rising.  It is dioecious, and the shaft part (floral pattern) of the female tree grows long, giving it a fluffy feel and appearance like feathers.  The peduncle of the female tree is smaller than that of the male tree, so the smoke does not appear to be smoldering.  The flower language of the smoke tree is “wrap in smoke,” “wise,” “lively home,” and “transient youth.”  You don’t need to “wrap in smoke”.

梅雨の晴れ間、公園の入口に綿毛のような穂が木全体を包み込むスモークツリーがふんわりと揺れています。スモークツリーは、英名を「smoke tree」、和名を「煙の木」と言うように、国を問わず煙をイメージしている名称がついている樹木です。南ヨーロッパからヒマラヤ、中国と広い範囲に分布し、樹高は3～5mほどです。初夏から真夏にかけて、雌の木は長さ20cmほどの花穂をつけます。花を咲かせた後、残った軸の部分が羽毛のようになり、煙が立ち上っているような姿になるのが特徴です。雌雄異株で、雌木の軸の部分（花柄）が長く伸びて、羽毛のようなふわふわとした触感と見た目になります。雌木の花柄は雄木に比べて小さいので、煙がくすぶっているようには見えません。スモークツリーの花言葉は「煙に巻く」「賢明」「賑やかな家庭」「儚い青春」です。「煙に巻く」は不要ですね。