In Yashima Swamp at the altitude of 1,640 m in Mt. Kirigamine, every native flower blooms almost at once in a hurry in the short summer. The swamp originated ten thousand years ago when volcanic lava created a lake. Perished plants do not disintegrate sufficiently because of the cold weather and pile up every year at the rate of 1 mm a year. Piling up 1 mm per year for ten thousand years makes 10 m and the vast lake has been almost filled only to leave small areas of water. The swamp is preserved and people can walk only on trails between ropes. Shig and Sue went there on August 2 and walked 90 minutes around the swamp to see flowers posted below.

霧ケ峰の八島湿原は海抜1,640 mで、寒冷のため植物が充分腐敗せず毎年 1mmずつ１万年かかって湖を埋めて出来た湿原で、尾瀬などと同じです。短い夏の間にあらゆる高山植物が大急ぎで一斉に咲きます。8月2日には以下の花が咲いていました。

Partly because these are mostly local flowers, we know only few English names.

From left to right; No-hana-shobu iris, a thistle (あざみ) and a butterfly only seen in the mountains, Hakusan-furo, Giboshi, Hotaru-bukuro or literally "firefly sack", and Kirin-so.

Below are Korinka, Matsumushi-so, Nadeshiko, Ominaeshi, Benihana-shimotsuke-so and Tsurigane-ninjin.

Tsuru-fuji-bakama, Shishi-udo, Waremo-ko and Yanagi-ran.

ウドの大木が孤高を誇っていました。

The following two pictures were not taken in Yashima Swamp but in the similar altitude on the same day: i.e. Ko-oni-yuri at Lake Megami (女神湖) and Nikko-kisuge at Mt. Kurumayama (車山).

車山の日光キスゲは7月下旬が花時ですが、西北斜面の「車山肩」ではまだ咲いていました。日光キスゲの花が終わると車山は松虫草の花で覆われます。

The following were taken near-by on the same day but around the altitude of 1,200 m. The plant to the left below is called Silk Tree because of its flower petals like silk threads. Do you know the right-hand side white flowers ? They are potato flowers. Potatos rarely bloom in the lowlands in Japan but bloom without exception in highlands. Potato flowers remind us of the story that French queen pinned these flowers on her chest in a party to promote potatoes in France as a very precious kind of vegetable.

絹糸でできたような花なので、合歓（ねむ）の木を英語ではSilk Treeと言います。馬鈴薯は高原では必ず花を咲かせます。南米チリから欧州に馬鈴薯が入ってきた時、それを普及させようとしたフランスの皇后は馬鈴薯の花を胸につけてパーティーに出席したそうです。王宮の畑に栽培し、わざと夜間警備を緩めて盗ませたので、この貴重な植物はまたたく間に普及したそうです。

All flowers except the last two are naturally found only in the highlands in Japan. In the glacial age, the sea level was low and Japan was connected to the continent. Northern plants escaped from the chill and imigrated into Japan. When the cold epoch was over, those plants climbed up into highlands separated each other.

最後の２種類以外は全て高原特有です。氷河期に日本は大陸とつながっていて、北方の植物が寒さを逃れて日本に移住してきました。氷河期が終わると、それらは高原に上り高山植物となりました。