kusanoko

Nazuna is a Japanese native perennial herb that blooms in early spring.  
It is one of the seven spring flowers and is also known as "penpengusa" or "chamisengusa," and has been a popular wildflower since ancient times.  
It grows in rice paddies, along roadsides, in wastelands, and throughout human settlements.  
The phrase "penpengusa no mo nai" is used as a metaphor for land so desolate that not even the nazuna can grow there.  
Nazuna germinates in autumn and overwinters as a rosette.  
When it is edible, the tender leaves of the rosette are picked in January and February and cooked.  
The English name "shepherd's purse" is derived from the fact that the shape of the Nazuna fruit resembles a shepherd's purse.  

  
  
  
  
  
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shepherds purse  