Birth flower for June 12
Silk tree
Meaning: Joy
At dusk its feathery leaves fold together in pairs and droop, as if the tree were sleeping, which is why the Japanese call it nemunoki, the sleeping tree. The Chinese name hehuan, joined joy, comes from the same habit, and the tree became a symbol of a happy marriage. The pink powder puffs are not petals at all but bundles of long silky stamens. Basho wrote a famous haiku about them at Kisakata.