Daisy Fleabane
Originally uploaded by nofrills.
View large. I never thought this weed was this beautiful. You can't walk in a Japanese suburban or urban areas, without seeing this flower in May.
This flower is called ヒメジオン (hi me ji o n) in Japanese. ヒメ (姫: hi me) means "small, tiny" and ジオン (ji o n) must be referring this kind of daisies.
Another name for this flower is ビンボウグザ (bi n bo u gu sa). ビンボウ (bi n bo u) means "poor, skint, deprived". グサ (gu sa) is basically クサ (ku sa), which means "plant, weed". So ビンボウグザ (bi n bo u gu sa) is "poor person's flower". I don't know anything about why it is called so, but when I was young, my grandmother used to tell me not to pick this flower because "it will make you poor". But I couldn't resist. They were so pretty, and they were everywhere. Probably that's why I'm not rich? ;-)
