Flowers
The Garden Effect and the Wonder of White Petals
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Why is Yururi Island a paradise? First of all, in a completely uninhabited world where human activity has ceased, only wild horses, sometimes standing in the misty meadows, sometimes galloping through the snowfields glistening in the morning sun, create a poetic scene that cannot be seen anywhere else. In addition, the landscape of flowers and grasses covering the surface of the island also proves this place is worthy of being called paradise. The moment you climb up the cliffs surrounding the island, the scenery spreads out before you. If you are looking for something similar to that scenery, you may have to think of the landscape you saw in your dream, rather than any other place on earth. The scenery of Yururi Island is so delicate and unique as to make you think so.
The “flower garden effect” is thought to have had a significant influence on creating such dream-like landscapes. This phenomenon is considered to occur when horses are grazed in grasslands. Horses prefer to eat tall grasses such as Poaceae and Crassulaceae, so bark-stripping suppresses the height of these plants. As a result, shorter plants such as Geraniaceae, Liliaceae, Campanulaceae, Iridaceae, and Orchidaceae, which would normally be in the shade and difficult to maintain, can thrive more vigorously. These plants occupy a larger area, and many are small flowering wild plants. Therefore, when the flowering season arrives, the entire Yururi Island becomes a carpet of green as far as the eye can see, interwoven with the colors of the pretty flowers.
The horses living on Yururi Island today originated from the horses brought by the fishers who built kelp guardhouses on the island after the war. However, there is a record that horses were already grazing naturally on the island 100 years ago in the Taisho era. It seems that this kind of garden effect has developed over such a long period through the relationship with horses. In the grasslands spread out on the plateau above the cliffs of Yururi Island, there are colonies of summer-flowering Hosta rectifolia and Sanguisorba tenuifolia var. alba that bloom from late summer to autumn. A rare sight of these flowers in full bloom on the soft green grass covering the ground. It is truly a miraculous garden floating on the sea, a natural flower garden brought about by the horses surviving on this island.
The flower garden on the island of Yururi also hides a great mystery. For some reason, some of the plants that would typically have freshly colored petals bloom in white here. Hosta rectifolia of the Liliaceae, Orchis aristata of the Orchidaceae, Geranium yesoense of the Geraniaceae, Adenophora triphylla of the Campanulaceae, Prunella vulgaris ssp. asiatica of the Lamiaceae Prunella vulgaris ssp. asiatica of the Campanulaceae, Vicia cracca of the Lamiaceae, etc., all of which are characterized by their purplish flowers. In addition to their natural color, you can also find many white flowers in the grasslands of Yururi Island.
These are called “Shirobana-Tachigiboushi” and “Shirobana-Hakusanchidori,” respectively. The reason why so many different white-flowered varieties have taken root on Yururi Island is still unknown. Given that they are all purple insect-pollinating flowers, it may be that the Nemuro Peninsula and its vicinity have unique conditions where white flowers effectively attract insects. It has also been suggested that the island was uninhabited for so long that it was spared from pilferage. At present, these possibilities are still being debated. In other words, the white flowers that bloom on Yururi Island are one of the beautiful mysteries hidden only on this island. And perhaps it should remain a mystery. Maybe paradise is only revealed when some mysteries and secrets are combined.
