Have a look at these cute Alstroemeriaアリストロメリア in my school in Fuse, Higashi Osaka東大阪布施

This week, the shop assistant at the flower shop in the shopping arcade in Ajiro, Fuse布施足代 recommended these cute flowers to me.　Are they not beautiful! They are called Alstroemeria both in English and in Japanese.

So the Japanese name in katakanaアリストロメリア resembles  the English name very well. The flower itself was  named by the German Linnaeus after a Swedish Biologist with the name Alströmer. So it is not original English英語, either. As it`s name is not a typical English name, may call it by the flowers popular name Peruvian Lily or Lily of the Inkas. What great names! They also tale-tell the origin of the Alstroemeria – South America, especially the country in the southern Andes and Brazil. So their bright colors and vivid beauty stems from South America!

Well the Peruvian Lilies in my school are probably grown in Japan. I can imagine that the Japanese with their love for everything beautiful in general and flowers in particular have long past started to cultivate the Lily of the Inkasアリトとロメリア as decoration flowers. I am always amazed by the deep interest and love for detail Japanese harbor in their field of interest. I believe it is one of the main reasons why they have developed such a rich culture in the past and keep adding to it nowadays.

This Lily of the Inkas from South America have large nice bright colored flowers. Especially the upper petals bear some tiger stripes making them even more interesting to look at.  Every plant splits up at the top so that they can bear many flowers. Besides the pink white flower that can be seen on the two upper pictures, I also got some yellow ones　that can be seen in the picture below.

The English英語 Conversation students  at our school here in Fuse, Higashi Osaka　東大坂布施 also like to comment on the flowers in the reception room. Many did not know about the flower, so this week we often talked about the name and the origin of the Alstroemeria アリストロメリ.

If you want to read more about this fascinating Peruvian Lily, here is the link to the English and the Japanese wikipedia page.