Welcome to the Meiji Memorial Forest Takao Quasi-National Park

Odorikoso (Nettle)
(April to June)

Kibana Tsurifuneso (Yellow Touch-me-not) (August to September)

Ginryoso (Monotropastrum humile) (April to August)

A total of 1,300 species, representing 153 families of higher plants, are found on Mt. Takao and the surrounding areas. Of these, 65 species of wild plants are endemic to Mt. Takao and have been presented as such at academic conferences. The following is a description of some of these plants.

Forty different species of violets have been confirmed on Mt. Takao and the surrounding areas, of which 15 are most commonly encountered.

This perennial plant that grows among trees has a square, hard stalk about 60 cm long and 5 cm wide, with a long, sharply-pointed tip and serrated edges.

One of the most peculiar plants among the many wild plants found on Mt. Takao is sekkoku, a perennial that belongs to the orchidaceous family. This epiphytic plant is mainly found attached to the upper branches of large cedars.

During the season of new green leaves, the most beautiful color undoubtedly is the lime green of the maple and beech trees. Although maple trees are encountered everywhere in Tokyo's suburbs, beech trees are quite rare. They grow naturally only deep in the mountains in the Kanto region and in some low- lying mountainous areas of the Tohoko region. You will easily encounter this temperate zone tree on Mt. Takao. A natural forest of Japanese beech, Inubuna, extends from the north side of the open area in front of the Cable Car Sanjo Station all the way to the vicinity of the suspension bridge on Trail 4. However, this is the only place the beech is found on Mt. Takao or any of the surrounding mountains.

Mt. Takao offers beautiful views every season but the scenery in autumn, when the whole mountain is ablaze with the magnificent colors of maple and other trees, is something special to behold. A large number of visitors converge on the mountain during autumn.

Between the middle and end of April when the cherry blossoms have fallen off the trees at the foot of the mountain, visitors can still enjoy flower viewing on a large scale along the hiking trail that branches off the main trail from the top of Mt. Takao to Mt. Jinba. During this period, the yamazakura trees are in bloom over a distance of about 2 km along the hiking trail leading to Mt. Kobotoke Shiroyama in the direction of Sagami Lake.