Cherry Blossoms in Autumn
(Taito ward, Tokyo on Oct.29)
This autumn, spring flowers-cherry blossoms-are coming out unseasonably here and there in Tokyo. (Some kinds originally bloom in winter)
Cherry trees come into bud in summer which are to bloom in the next spring, but those buds don't get fat till spring. After the flower buds are exposed to the low temperature for a given period between autumn and winter, they grow and come out as the temperature goes up in the early spring.
This summer in Tokyo was so long that it barely became more like autumn in the late October.
There were several days with lower temperature than before and after them, therefore some cherries mistook those cold days for winter and bloomed out of season sensing that the rise in temperature afterward was the coming of spring.
It is said those cherries mostly had no leaves eaten by caterpillars and it made cherries sense that winter came.
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