芝草(しばくさ) Shibakusa(Dwarf fountain grass)
イネ科の多年草です。８月～１１月にかけて道端や空き地にブラシのような黒紫色の穂をつけます。根が地面に非常に強く張り、丈夫で抜きにくいため、「チカラシバ」ともいわれます。
- Shibakusa (Chikarashiba) is a perennial grass belonging to the Poaceae family. Between August and November, it bears dark purple, brush-shaped spikes along roadsides and in open fields. Because its roots anchor firmly into the ground, making it very durable and difficult to uproot, it earned the name Chikarashiba, which means "power grass."
芝草(しばくさ) Poems including Shibakusa
万葉集には「芝草」が詠まれている歌が二首あります。なお、この「芝草」は単なる雑草のことだという説もあります。
- There are two poems in the Manyoshu that contain Shibakusa. However, there is also a theory that it simply refers to miscellaneous weeds.
1048: たち変り古き都となりぬれば道の芝草長く生ひにけり
2777: 畳薦へだて編む数通はさば道の芝草生ひずあらましを