The leaves are wilting and some are withering, but a single red Asagao(morning glory) is blooming as if leaning against a stone.  “Asagao” is an autumn season word, but it is cool quickly and there is no momentum anymore.  Speaking of Asagao, it is a flower that is so familiar that everyone knows it, but surprisingly the details are unknown.  From a global perspective, no other horticultural plant has changed its morphology as much as the Asagao, and most of its mutations were born in the Edo period.  Some of the most mutated ones were unable to produce seeds, and Edo period enthusiasts used genetic techniques to create a wide variety of morning glories.  People in the Edo period knew Mendel’s laws empirically.  In addition to Asagao, there are plants called Hirugao(day glory), Yugao(evening glory), and Yorugao(night glory).  Since it blooms similar flowers in the morning, noon, evening, and night, each name is given, but only the Yugao is an out-of-group flower.  Yugao is a flower of the Cucurbitaceae family, and “Kanpyo”, which is also found in sushi ingredients, is a roll of Yugao fruit.

葉は萎れ、枯れる葉もある中、一輪な赤い朝顔が石に寄り掛かるように咲いています。朝顔は秋の季語ですが、冷込みが早くもう勢いはありません。朝顔と言えば、知らない人がいないほど身近な花ですが、意外にその詳しい事情は知られていません。世界的に見ても、朝顔ほど形態が多種多様に変化した園芸植物は他になく、そのほとんどの変異は江戸時代に生まれました。変異の著しいものには種子を作る事ができないものもあり、江戸時代の愛好家達は遺伝的な手法で多種多様な朝顔を作り出しました。江戸時代の人々は経験的にメンデルの法則を知っていた訳です。また、朝顔の他にも昼顔、夕顔、夜顔という植物があります。朝、昼、夕、夜に良く似た花を咲かせるので、それぞれの名前が付きましたが、夕顔だけは仲間外れの花です。夕顔はウリ科の花で、寿司のネタにもある”かんぴょう”は夕顔の実を巻き取った物です。