Spider Lily

The Spider Lily, is a herbaceous (perennial) plant, it is distributed from Honshu (southern Kanto and southwards) to the Ryukyu Islands and the coast of the Korean Peninsula. In the Oki Islands, it grows naturally only on Chiburi Island, which is known as the northern limit of its native habitat in Japan.

On Chiburi island, white flowers bloom around August. The flowers open at nighttime which is when their fragrance is at its strongest.
The flower’s seed is round in shape with a diameter of approximately 2 centimetres. The outside looks like it is made of cork, while the inside looks like it is made from sponge. It floats easily with the ocean current and is highly resistant to drought and water logging which greatly impacts the distribution areas of the plant as they spread throughout their region via ocean currents.

It is thought that the natural conditions of Okinoshima such as the warm environment, the geographical location of the islands as well as the ocean current are what have allowed the spider lily plant to easily spread across Chiburi island. It can be said that this type of environment is a symbolic example of the distribution of southern plants spreading north.