The Wildlife of Japan includes its flora

Flora

Flora is the plant life occurring in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring or indigenous—native plant life. The corresponding term for animals is fauna.-Etymology:...

, fauna

Fauna

Fauna or faunæ is all of the animal life of any particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is flora.Zoologists and paleontologists use fauna to refer to a typical collection of animals found in a specific time or place, e.g. the "Sonoran Desert fauna" or the "Burgess shale fauna"...

 and natural habitats. The islands of Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 stretch a long distance from north to south and cover a wide range of climatic zones. This results in a high diversity of wildlife

Wildlife

Wildlife includes all non-domesticated plants, animals and other organisms. Domesticating wild plant and animal species for human benefit has occurred many times all over the planet, and has a major impact on the environment, both positive and negative....

 despite Japan's isolation from the mainland of Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

. In the north of the country, there are many subarctic

Subarctic

The Subarctic is a region in the Northern Hemisphere immediately south of the true Arctic and covering much of Alaska, Canada, the north of Scandinavia, Siberia, and northern Mongolia...

 species which have colonized Japan from the north. In the south there are south-east Asian species, typical of tropical regions. Between these areas lies the temperate

Temperate

In geography, temperate or tepid latitudes of the globe lie between the tropics and the polar circles. The changes in these regions between summer and winter are generally relatively moderate, rather than extreme hot or cold...

 zone which shares many species with China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 and Korea

Korea

Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...

. Japan also has many endemic species that are found nowhere else.

Mammals

About 130 species of land mammal

Mammal

Mammals are members of a class of air-breathing vertebrate animals characterised by the possession of endothermy, hair, three middle ear bones, and mammary glands functional in mothers with young...

 occur in Japan. The largest of these are the two bear

Bear

Bears are mammals of the family Ursidae. Bears are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans, with the pinnipeds being their closest living relatives. Although there are only eight living species of bear, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Northern...

s. The brown bear

Brown Bear

The brown bear is a large bear distributed across much of northern Eurasia and North America. It can weigh from and its largest subspecies, the Kodiak Bear, rivals the polar bear as the largest member of the bear family and as the largest land-based predator.There are several recognized...

 (Ursus arctos) is found in Hokkaidō

Hokkaido

, formerly known as Ezo, Yezo, Yeso, or Yesso, is Japan's second largest island; it is also the largest and northernmost of Japan's 47 prefectural-level subdivisions. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaido from Honshu, although the two islands are connected by the underwater railway Seikan Tunnel...

 where it plays an important role in the culture of the Ainu people

Ainu people

The , also called Aynu, Aino , and in historical texts Ezo , are indigenous people or groups in Japan and Russia. Historically they spoke the Ainu language and related varieties and lived in Hokkaidō, the Kuril Islands, and much of Sakhalin...

. The Asian black bear (Ursus thibetanus) inhabits mountainous areas in Honshū

Honshu

is the largest island of Japan. The nation's main island, it is south of Hokkaido across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyushu across the Kanmon Strait...

, Kyūshū

Kyushu

is the third largest island of Japan and most southwesterly of its four main islands. Its alternate ancient names include , , and . The historical regional name is referred to Kyushu and its surrounding islands....

 and Shikoku

Shikoku

is the smallest and least populous of the four main islands of Japan, located south of Honshū and east of the island of Kyūshū. Its ancient names include Iyo-no-futana-shima , Iyo-shima , and Futana-shima...

. Smaller carnivores

Carnivora

The diverse order Carnivora |Latin]] carō "flesh", + vorāre "to devour") includes over 260 species of placental mammals. Its members are formally referred to as carnivorans, while the word "carnivore" can refer to any meat-eating animal...

 include the red fox

Red Fox

The red fox is the largest of the true foxes, as well as being the most geographically spread member of the Carnivora, being distributed across the entire northern hemisphere from the Arctic Circle to North Africa, Central America, and the steppes of Asia...

 (Vulpes vulpes), raccoon dog

Raccoon Dog

The raccoon dog , also known as the magnut or tanuki, is a canid indigenous to east Asia. It is the only extant species in the genus Nyctereutes...

 (Nyctereutes procyonoides) and Japanese marten

Martes melampus

The Japanese marten is a mammal in the marten genus most closely related to the sable. It is half a meter in length on average, not counting a 20-centimeter-long tail, and between 1000 and 1500 grams in weight. Males are generally larger than females...

 (Martes melampus). There are two wild cats

Felidae

Felidae is the biological family of the cats; a member of this family is called a felid. Felids are the strictest carnivores of the thirteen terrestrial families in the order Carnivora, although the three families of marine mammals comprising the superfamily pinnipedia are as carnivorous as the...

 in Japan: the leopard cat

Leopard Cat

The leopard cat is a small wild cat of South and East Asia. Since 2002 it has been listed as Least Concern by IUCN as it is widely distributed but threatened by habitat loss and hunting in parts of its range...

 (Prionailurus bengalensis) of mainland Asia occurs on Tsushima Island

Tsushima Island

Tsushima Island is an island of the Japanese Archipelago situated in the middle of the Tsushima Strait at 34°25'N and 129°20'E. The main island of Tsushima was once a single island, but the island was divided into two in 1671 by the Ōfunakosiseto canal and into three in 1900 by the Manzekiseto canal...

 while the Iriomote cat

Iriomote cat

The Iriomote cat , is a wild cat about the size of a domestic cat that lives exclusively on the Japanese island of Iriomote. It is considered a "living fossil" by many biologists because it has not changed much from its primitive form...

 (Prionailurus iriomotensis) is unique to the island of Iriomote

Iriomote

Iriomote is the largest of the Yaeyama Islands and the second largest in Okinawa Prefecture after Okinawa Island itself....

.

Grazing mammals include the sika deer

Sika Deer

The Sika Deer, Cervus nippon, also known as the Spotted Deer or the Japanese Deer, is a species of deer native to much of East Asia and introduced to various other parts of the world...

 (Cervus nippon), Japanese serow

Japanese Serow

The Japanese serow , known in Japanese as the , is a goat-antelope found in dense woodland on Honshū, Japan....

 (Capricornis crispus) and wild boar (Sus scrofa). Among Japan's most famous mammals is the Japanese macaque

Japanese Macaque

The Japanese macaque , historically known as saru , but now known as Nihonzaru to distinguish it from other primates, is a terrestrial Old World monkey species native to Japan....

 (Macaca fuscata), the world's most northerly monkey

Monkey

A monkey is a primate, either an Old World monkey or a New World monkey. There are about 260 known living species of monkey. Many are arboreal, although there are species that live primarily on the ground, such as baboons. Monkeys are generally considered to be intelligent. Unlike apes, monkeys...

.

Marine mammals include the dugong

Dugong

The dugong is a large marine mammal which, together with the manatees, is one of four living species of the order Sirenia. It is the only living representative of the once-diverse family Dugongidae; its closest modern relative, Steller's sea cow , was hunted to extinction in the 18th century...

 (Dugong dugon), finless porpoise

Finless Porpoise

The finless porpoise is one of six porpoise species. In the waters around Japan, at the northern end of its range, it is known as the sunameri . A freshwater population found in the Yangtze River in China is known locally as the jiangzhu or "river pig". There is a degree of taxonomic uncertainty...

 (Neophocaena phocaeniodes) and Steller's sea lion

Steller's Sea Lion

The Steller sea lion also known as the northern sea lion, is a threatened species of sea lion in the northern Pacific. It is the sole member of the genus Eumetopias and the largest of the eared seals . Among pinnipeds, it is inferior in size only to the walrus and the two elephant seals...

 (Eumetopias jubatus).

Birds

Over 600 species of bird

Bird

Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...

 have been recorded in Japan and more than 250 of these breed. A number of birds are endemic

Endemism in birds

An endemic bird area is a region of the world that contains two or more restricted-range species, while a "secondary area" contains one or more restricted-range species. Both terms were devised by Birdlife International....

 including the Japanese woodpecker

Japanese Woodpecker

Japanese Green Woodpecker , also known as Japanese Woodpecker, is a medium-sized woodpecker similar and closely related to the European Green Woodpecker, but endemic to Japan....

 (Picus awokera), copper pheasant

Copper Pheasant

The Copper Pheasant, Syrmaticus soemmerringii also known as Soemmerring's Pheasant is a large, up to 136cm long, pheasant with a rich coppery chestnut plumage, yellowish bill, brown iris and red facial skin. The female is a brown bird with greyish brown upperparts and buff barred dark brown below...

 (Syrmaticus soemmerringii) and Japan's national bird, the green pheasant

Green Pheasant

The Green Pheasant, Phasianus versicolor, also known as Japanese Pheasant, is native to the Japanese Archipelago, to which it is endemic. The male is distinguished from that species by its dark green plumage on the breast and mantle. The male also has an iridescent violet neck, red bare facial...

 (Phasianus versicolor). Several species are unique to the smaller islands including the Okinawa rail

Okinawa Rail

The Okinawa Rail is a species of bird in the rail family, Rallidae. It is endemic to Okinawa Island in Japan where it is known as the...

 (Gallirallus okinawae), Izu thrush

Izu Thrush

The Izu Thrush , also known as the Izu Islands Thrush, is a thrush native to the Izu and Ryukyu Islands of Japan, in particular, Hachijojima, Mikurajima, and Miyakejima in the former chain, and Yakushima and the Tokara Islands in the latter...

 (Turdus celanops) and Bonin white-eye

Bonin White-eye

The Bonin White-eye Apalopteron familiare or is a small yellow and grey bird endemic to the Ogasawara Islands of Japan. Until recently it was considered part of the Meliphagidae family of honeyeaters and was called the Bonin Honeyeater.A distinctive feature of the bird is the white rim around the...

 (Apalopteron familiare ). Most of the non-endemic birds are shared with China but a few originate in Siberia or south-east Asia.

Large numbers of migrant

Bird migration

Bird migration is the regular seasonal journey undertaken by many species of birds. Bird movements include those made in response to changes in food availability, habitat or weather. Sometimes, journeys are not termed "true migration" because they are irregular or in only one direction...

 birds pass through Japan in spring and autumn including many wader

Wader

Waders, called shorebirds in North America , are members of the order Charadriiformes, excluding the more marine web-footed seabird groups. The latter are the skuas , gulls , terns , skimmers , and auks...

s. In winter, several sites are important for swan

Swan

Swans, genus Cygnus, are birds of the family Anatidae, which also includes geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form the tribe Cygnini. Sometimes, they are considered a distinct subfamily, Cygninae...

s, geese

Goose

The word goose is the English name for a group of waterfowl, belonging to the family Anatidae. This family also includes swans, most of which are larger than true geese, and ducks, which are smaller....

 and cranes

Crane (bird)

Cranes are a family, Gruidae, of large, long-legged and long-necked birds in the order Gruiformes. There are fifteen species of crane in four genera. Unlike the similar-looking but unrelated herons, cranes fly with necks outstretched, not pulled back...

.

Reptiles and amphibians

Japan has about 73 species of reptile

Reptile

Reptiles are members of a class of air-breathing, ectothermic vertebrates which are characterized by laying shelled eggs , and having skin covered in scales and/or scutes. They are tetrapods, either having four limbs or being descended from four-limbed ancestors...

 of which nearly half are endemic. The mamushi

Gloydius blomhoffii

Gloydius blomhoffii, commonly known as the mamushi, or Japanese mamushi, is a venomous pitviper species found in China, Japan, and Korea. There are four subspecies including the nominate subspecies described here....

 (Gloydius blomhoffii) and the tiger keelback

Rhabdophis tigrinus

Rhabdophis tigrinus is a venomous colubrid found in East and Southeast Asia. No subspecies are currently recognized.-Description:The dorsal color pattern is olive-drab green with black and bright orange crossbars or spots from the neck down the first third of the body. The belly is whitish...

 (Rhabdophis tigrinus) are the only venomous snakes in the main islands. The deadlier habu

Habu

' is a Japanese name used to refer to certain venomous snakes:Snakes:* The following species are found in the Ryukyu Islands of Japan:** Trimeresurus elegans, a.k.a. the Sakishima habu, found in the southern Ryukyu Islands...

s (Trimeresurus spp.) are found in the Ryukyu Islands

Ryukyu Islands

The , also known as the , is a chain of islands in the western Pacific, on the eastern limit of the East China Sea and to the southwest of the island of Kyushu in Japan. From about 1829 until the mid 20th century, they were alternately called Luchu, Loochoo, or Lewchew, akin to the Mandarin...

. Sea turtle

Sea turtle

Sea turtles are marine reptiles that inhabit all of the world's oceans except the Arctic.-Distribution:...

s and sea snakes occur in warmer waters around southern Japan.

There are over 40 amphibian

Amphibian

Amphibians , are a class of vertebrate animals including animals such as toads, frogs, caecilians, and salamanders. They are characterized as non-amniote ectothermic tetrapods...

 species including the Japanese giant salamander

Japanese giant salamander

The Japanese giant salamander is endemic to Japan, where it is known as , literally meaning "giant pepper fish". With a length of up to almost 1.5 meters , it is the second largest salamander in the world, only being surpassed by the very similar and closely related Chinese giant salamander The...

 (Andrias japonicus), one of the world's largest amphibians. The Asiatic salamander

Asiatic salamander

The Asiatic Salamanders are primitive salamanders found all over Asia, and in European Russia. They are closely related to the Giant Salamanders , with which they form the suborder Cryptobranchoidea. About half of hynobiids are unique to Japan .Hynobiid salamanders practice external fertilization,...

 family (Hynobiidae) is particularly well-represented; many members of the family are found only in Japan.

Fish

Over 3000 different types of fish

Fish

Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...

 have been recorded in Japan. Important freshwater

Freshwater

Fresh water is naturally occurring water on the Earth's surface in ice sheets, ice caps, glaciers, bogs, ponds, lakes, rivers and streams, and underground as groundwater in aquifers and underground streams. Fresh water is generally characterized by having low concentrations of dissolved salts and...

 fish include the ayu

Ayu

The or sweetfish, Plecoglossus altivelis, is an amphidromous fish, the only species in the genus Plecoglossus and in family Plecoglossidae. It is a relative of the smelts and is placed in the order Osmeriformes...

 (Plecoglossus altivelis), crucian carp

Crucian carp

The crucian carp is a member of the family Cyprinidae, which includes many other fish, such as the common carp, or the smaller minnows. They inhabit lakes, ponds, and slow-moving rivers throughout Europe and Asia. The crucian is a medium-sized cyprinid, which rarely exceeds a weight of over 3.3...

 (Carassius carassius) and common carp

Common carp

The Common carp is a widespread freshwater fish of eutrophic waters in lakes and large rivers in Europe and Asia. The wild populations are considered vulnerable to extinction, but the species has also been domesticated and introduced into environments worldwide, and is often considered an invasive...

 (Cyprinus carpio). The common carp is the ancestor of the well-known domestic koi

Koi

or more specifically , are ornamental varieties of domesticated common carp that are kept for decorative purposes in outdoor koi ponds or water gardens....

 carp.

Important saltwater

Seawater

Seawater is water from a sea or ocean. On average, seawater in the world's oceans has a salinity of about 3.5% . This means that every kilogram of seawater has approximately of dissolved salts . The average density of seawater at the ocean surface is 1.025 g/ml...

 fish include the red sea bream

Red sea bream

Red sea bream is a name given to at least two species of fish of the family Sparidae, Pagrus major and Pagellus bogaraveo. Pagellus bogaraveo is also known as blackspot sea bream....

 (Pagrus major). Mudskipper

Mudskipper

Mudskippers are members of the subfamily Oxudercinae , within the family Gobiidae . They are completely amphibious fish, fish that can use their pectoral fins to walk on land...

s are found in warmer areas while coral reefs in the Ryukyu Islands have many fish typical of tropical waters such as parrotfish

Parrotfish

Parrotfishes are a group of fishes that traditionally had been considered a family , but now often are considered a subfamily of the wrasses. They are found in relatively shallow tropical and subtropical oceans throughout the world, but with the largest species richness in the Indo-Pacific...

 and anemonefish. The little-known goblin shark

Goblin shark

The goblin shark, Mitsukurina owstoni, is a deep-sea shark, the sole living species in the family Mitsukurinidae. The most distinctive characteristic of the goblin shark is the unusual shape of its head. It has a long, trowel-shaped, beak-like rostrum or snout, much longer than other sharks' snouts...

 (Mitsukurina owstoni) and frilled shark (Chlamydoselachus anguineus) have been recorded from deep waters off Japan.

Insects

Japan has around 300 kinds of butterfly

Butterfly

A butterfly is a mainly day-flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, which includes the butterflies and moths. Like other holometabolous insects, the butterfly's life cycle consists of four parts: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Most species are diurnal. Butterflies have large, often brightly coloured...

 including several of the mainly tropical milkweed butterflies

Milkweed butterfly

Milkweed butterflies are a subfamily, Danainae, in the family Nymphalidae, or brush-footed butterflies. They lay their eggs on various milkweeds on which their larvae feed...

 in the Ryukyus. There are around 190 dragonflies

Dragonfly

A dragonfly is a winged insect belonging to the order Odonata, the suborder Epiprocta or, in the strict sense, the infraorder Anisoptera . It is characterized by large multifaceted eyes, two pairs of strong transparent wings, and an elongated body...

 including the primitive Epiophlebia superstes

Epiophlebia superstes

Epiophlebia superstes is a species of dragonfly that is native to Japan....

. Other well-known insect

Insect

Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...

s in Japan include cicada

Cicada

A cicada is an insect of the order Hemiptera, suborder Auchenorrhyncha , in the superfamily Cicadoidea, with large eyes wide apart on the head and usually transparent, well-veined wings. There are about 2,500 species of cicada around the world, and many of them remain unclassified...

s, crickets

Cricket (insect)

Crickets, family Gryllidae , are insects somewhat related to grasshoppers, and more closely related to katydids or bush crickets . They have somewhat flattened bodies and long antennae. There are about 900 species of crickets...

 and fireflies

Firefly

Lampyridae is a family of insects in the beetle order Coleoptera. They are winged beetles, and commonly called fireflies or lightning bugs for their conspicuous crepuscular use of bioluminescence to attract mates or prey. Fireflies produce a "cold light", with no infrared or ultraviolet frequencies...

. Firefly viewing is a popular tourist attraction in some areas.

Molluscs

Flora

Around 5000 to 6000 species of plant

Plant

Plants are living organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. Precise definitions of the kingdom vary, but as the term is used here, plants include familiar organisms such as trees, flowers, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae. The group is also called green plants or...

 occur naturally in Japan. The vegetation varies widely from subtropical forest in the south to coniferous forest in the north. In the subtropical zone, mangrove

Mangrove

Mangroves are various kinds of trees up to medium height and shrubs that grow in saline coastal sediment habitats in the tropics and subtropics – mainly between latitudes N and S...

s, cycad

Cycad

Cycads are seed plants typically characterized by a stout and woody trunk with a crown of large, hard and stiff, evergreen leaves. They usually have pinnate leaves. The individual plants are either all male or all female . Cycads vary in size from having a trunk that is only a few centimeters...

s and tree ferns can be found. In the warm-temperate climate of Kyūshū, Shikoku and south-western Honshū, the dominant vegetation is broad-leaved evergreen

Evergreen

In botany, an evergreen plant is a plant that has leaves in all seasons. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which completely lose their foliage during the winter or dry season.There are many different kinds of evergreen plants, both trees and shrubs...

 forest with many oak

Oak

An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...

s. In north Honshū and south-west Hokkaidō the climate is cool-temperate with broad-leaved deciduous

Deciduous

Deciduous means "falling off at maturity" or "tending to fall off", and is typically used in reference to trees or shrubs that lose their leaves seasonally, and to the shedding of other plant structures such as petals after flowering or fruit when ripe...

 trees including Japanese beech

Fagus crenata

Fagus crenata, known as the Japanese beech, Siebold's beech, or buna, is a deciduous tree of the beech family Fagaceae. It is native to Japan where it is widespread and often one of the dominant trees of Japan's deciduous forests. It is found from the Oshima Peninsula in Hokkaidō south to the Ōsumi...

 (Fagus crenata) and oaks like the konara (Quercus serrata). Conifers are dominant in much of Hokkaidō and in the mountains of central and northern Honshū with spruce

Spruce

A spruce is a tree of the genus Picea , a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the Family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal regions of the earth. Spruces are large trees, from tall when mature, and can be distinguished by their whorled branches and conical...

s and fir

Fir

Firs are a genus of 48–55 species of evergreen conifers in the family Pinaceae. They are found through much of North and Central America, Europe, Asia, and North Africa, occurring in mountains over most of the range...

s growing. In the highest mountains there is a zone of arctic-alpine

Arctic-alpine

An arctic-alpine taxon is one whose natural distribution includes the Arctic and more southerly mountain ranges, particularly the Alps. The presence of identical or similar taxa in both the tundra of the far north, and high mountain ranges much further south is testament to the similar...

 plants including the low-growing Siberian dwarf pine (Pinus pumila).

Conifer plantation

Plantation

A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...

s have replaced natural forest in many areas. Commonly grown trees include the hinoki cypress

Chamaecyparis obtusa

Chamaecyparis obtusa is a species of cypress native to central Japan.It is a slow-growing tree which grows to 35 m tall with a trunk up to 1 m in diameter. The bark is dark red-brown...

 (Chamaecyparis obtusa), Japanese red pine (Pinus densiflora), Japanese black pine

Pinus thunbergii

Pinus thunbergii is a pine native to coastal areas of Japan and South Korea.- Description :Japanese Black Pine can reach the height of 40 m, but rarely achieves this size outside its natural range...

 (Pinus thunbergii) and Japanese red cedar

Cryptomeria

Cryptomeria is a monotypic genus of conifer in the cypress family Cupressaceae formerly belonging to the family Taxodiaceae; it includes only one species, Cryptomeria japonica . It is endemic to Japan, where it is known as Sugi...

 (Cryptomeria japonica). The last is Japan's tallest conifer reaching 40 metres in height.

Bamboo

Bamboo

Bamboo is a group of perennial evergreens in the true grass family Poaceae, subfamily Bambusoideae, tribe Bambuseae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family....

 grows abundantly in Japan with around 400 to 500 different species including the dwarf bamboos known as sasa and the taller kinds called take which can reach 20 metres in height.

Many plants have been introduced to Japan from mainland Asia including important crop

Crop

Crop may refer to:* Crop, a plant grown and harvested for agricultural use* Crop , part of the alimentary tract of some animals* Crop , a modified whip used in horseback riding or disciplining humans...

s like rice

Rice

Rice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West Indies...

 and garden plants such as the chrysanthemum

Chrysanthemum

Chrysanthemums, often called mums or chrysanths, are of the genus constituting approximately 30 species of perennial flowering plants in the family Asteraceae which is native to Asia and northeastern Europe.-Etymology:...

. Since the Meiji Restoration

Meiji Restoration

The , also known as the Meiji Ishin, Revolution, Reform or Renewal, was a chain of events that restored imperial rule to Japan in 1868...

, increasing numbers of plants have come from Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

, North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

 and elsewhere. Native food plants include the water dropwort

Water dropwort

The water dropworts, Oenanthe , are a genus of plants in the family Apiaceae. Most of the species grow in damp ground, in marshes or in water....

 (Oenanthe javanica) and wasabi

Wasabi

, also known as Japanese horseradish, is a member of the Brassicaceae family, which includes cabbages, horseradish, and mustard. Its root is used as a condiment and has an extremely strong flavor. Its hotness is more akin to that of a hot mustard rather than the capsaicin in a chili pepper,...

(Wasabia japonica).

External links

• Japan Wildlife Conservation Society