Podocarpus (Inu-maki)

Podocarpus is a tree that grows in the seaside of the forest. Has a similar atmosphere to the pine, are pruned in the same way as pine, it may become the leading role of the garden.

Trim as a plurality of balls are arranged at random

The leaves are wider than the pine, since the density of the leaves is high, are pruned in a square, it is also often used as a hedge. For strong sea breeze, the seaside town, is also effective as a windbreak.

If the old fence, It's very solid, people can be on it

In the same way as Japanese umbrella pine , it has been named "Maki"in Japanese, but it is totally different. In Japan, in order to indicate that the quality is inferior, we use the word "dog (Inu)" as a prefix. Podocarpus are considered inferior in appearance than Japanese umbrella pine , it has been referred to as the "Inu-maki".

Fruits of Podocarpus

However, fruits of Japanese umbrella pine is pine cones. It is hard to eat them, but the fruits of Podocarpus are edible. Two-color fruit of that ripen in autumn, is a strange shape, but the red part is sweet and delicious.

Unfortunately, in the case of the fence, too pruned, you can not find this treat, to look for abandoned Podocarpus, you'll be able to eat it.

Podocarpus in wild style

Black pine (Kuro-matsu)

Including the Imperial Palace and Kyoto temples,

indispensable to the Japanese garden,it is the main tree.
It is called Kuro-matsu in Japanese.

Black pine is a hardy tree that grows along the coast of Japan,

it is referred to as a man pine from its majestic appearance. 

But usually they are trimmed in round shape such as the picture above.

Ancient feudal lords(Daimyo) often used black pine in their gardens.
Because of its dark green leaves even in winter, is considered a strong vitality tree,

or become a symbol of longevity.

Black pine is often used also in the home garden,

around the old house, sometimes to crawls the branches above the entrance.

It's called mon-kaburi  in Japanese.

Red pine (Aka-matsu)

Red pine (Aka-matsu) is another pine trees can be seen in the same way as Black pine (Kuro-matsu) in the Japanese garden.

It is native to mountains of Japan, referred to as a woman pine (Onna matsu),

because of its soft appearance compared to the Japanese black pine.

It is called Akamatsu which means red pine in the Japanese from the fact that in comparison with the Japanese black pine with a stem of  red brown.

Sprouts of Akamatsu　are in red brown, a leaf is soft compared to the Japanese black pine.

You can discern easily,if you touch their leaves.

Japanese red pine is susceptible to change of environment and air pollution, in the garden of  the urban areas,but no longer used much,has been useful there is also unusual varieties,such as the image below.

Shidare akamatsu has weeping branches

Tagyou-syou has a lot of stems