Oni fuuki. In Japanese, it means the Goblin’s (or Demon’s) Fan or Umbrella or something like that. Scientific name: Petasites japonicus var. giganteus
The plant likes damp places. The conical flower head is used as decorations sometimes. Try saying that real fast, it makes a great tongue twister. Buy and baked your butterbur bog rhubarb yet? I had some homework on supermarket foods this week, and so I took this picture of the fuuki. The flower stem of the Japanese butterbur appears in early spring before the leaves, and are cut before they elongate too much, and then are eaten in tempura usually.
NATURE IN JAPAN 