I observed maples of Mt. Moriyoshi and its surrounding regions on May 13, 2001.

Mt. Moriyoshi is of the altitude of 1454m,
and is located at the northeast part from the center of Akita Prefecture.
Precious nature has been maintained till present,
and the vast beech primeval forest serves
Black Woodpecker (Dryocopus martius) of rare sort with its habitat.

At the north of this region are located Shirakami mountains
which make prefectural border with Aomori Prefecture,
at the west is located the Oga peninsula,
at the south Lake Tazawa, and at the east side the Ou Mountains. 

It was a fine weather and the sky was transparent and blue.

This region produces beech wood. There still were remaining snows along the roadsides above 800m.
Although it remains cold every morning and evening, it is as hot as 20-25 degrees Celsius in the daytime.

I could see those maples through the mountain walking of this time,
such as Hauchiwakaede (Aer japonicum), Kohauchiwakaede (A. sieboldianum),
Yamamomiji (A.amoenum var.matsumurae), Akaitaya (A.pictum var. mayrii),
and Minekaede (A. tschonoskii).

At this time, it was observed that many of Hauchiwakaede and Akaitaya were in full bloom
and that Minekaede had the buds just before blooms.
We often see Hauchiwakaede near beech trees. Hauchiwakaede had red flowers everywhere.
I have once seen Akaitaya at KIRORO near Otaru in Hokkaido before,
but I could observe it thoroughly this time.

The following photos present the appearance of Akaitayas.
The upper two shows that young trees in the morning sun,
being at about 500m and that the leaves had already presented green.
The lower two show the trees of about15m tall.
They are near the altitude of 800m, and the reddish leaves and yellow flowers were checked.
The verdure of Akaitaya is so reddish that it is easy for us to ascertain Akaitaya
even from a distance when walking along the mountain path in Northeast District of Japan.

Next, this was the first time that I could observe Minekaede at the exact spot where they live.
It may be said that I encountered it by chance.

The top two photos show the small trees of Minekaede
whose trunk was divided into about ten slim trunks of 10 mm in diameter
and it was about 1-1.5m tall. They had no flowers.

The lower 3 photos are for the one tree from different angles.
The diameter of the trunk near the root was about 3-4cm, and it had attached the flowers,
from which it was identified Minekaede (A. tschonoskii).
The trunk had been bent at a right angle at the part of 10s cm above ground.
The tree was taking out the face among artificial Japanese cedars along a road,
so I thought it was probably crushed by snow.
In addition, another Minekaede was seen also at the side of Lake Taihei (Moriyoshi dam),
the height of tree was about 10m.

On the observation of this time I arrived at the spot from Saturday,
the 12th of May, and stayed at the nice mountain villa.

Our wood factory with sawmill is located at Moriyoshi-town, Akita Prefecture.