It’s spring time! Well, it was about 60 today so I’ll call it spring. I’ve never made a Kusamono before (primarily because I don’t have any show quality trees so it seemed a little pointless). But, on the other hand, they do look pretty so why not. I believe the scientific name is weedium backyardicus (HA!). I really wish I was better at tracking these things down, in fact, as a high school intern I used to identify fish specimens using a key written entirely in Spanish at the Natural History Museum in D.C. So it really is a little sloppy that I couldn’t figure this little guy out. Apparently googling “small white Virgina native wildflower” yields results for every other imaginable plant except this one.
**UPDATE: I think I found it, Cardamine hirsuta**
On second thought, perhaps that’s the point. From my very limited understanding of the art of Kusamono I believe they are used to “set the scene” so to speak. They can help establish a place (mountains, fields, ocean-side) or a time (spring, winter). They can be a single species or even a blend of multiple species. So I guess regardless of the specifics of the plant’s lineage it is indicative of spring, my home state of Virginia, and specifically my very own backyard. On that note, I’ll wish everyone a happy potting season!
On an unrelated note, here is a photo my girlfriend took of a squirrel I feed peanuts to while working on my trees outside.
Bonsai Prelude 