合歓木(ねぶ) Nebu(Silk tree)
合歓木(ねぶ)はマメ科ネムノキ亜科の落葉高木のネムノキです。６月から７月頃に、枝先に淡いピンク色の細いブラシのような可愛らしい花を咲かせます。高さは１０メートル位にまでなります。夕方になると葉が閉じて、夜眠るように感じられます。
・
- Nebu(Nemunoki), also known as the Persian silk tree or silk tree (scientific name: Albizia julibrissin), is a deciduous tree belonging to the Fabaceae family, subfamily Mimosoideae. Around June to July, it produces lovely, delicate, brush-like pink flowers at the tips of its branches. It can grow to a height of about 10 meters. In the evening, its leaves fold up, making it appear as if the tree is sleeping for the night.
合歓木(ねぶ)を詠んだ歌 Poems including Nebu
ネムノキが夜に葉を閉じる様子が男女の寄り添う姿を想起させたようで、万葉集の歌の中にもこのイメージをうかがわせています。全部で三首あります。
- The way the nemunoki's leaves close at night seems to have brought to mind the image of a man and woman nestled together, an image that also appears in three poems in the Manyoshu.
1461: 昼は咲き夜は恋ひ寝る合歓木の花君のみ見めや戯奴さへに見よ
1463: 我妹子が形見の合歓木は花のみに咲きてけだしく実にならじかも
2752: 我妹子を聞き都賀野辺のしなひ合歓木我れは忍びず間なくし思へば