Forsythia or Rengyo (in Japanese) Forsythia viridissima
Origin: East Asia – China, Korea and Japan.
Facts: It is named in honour of William Forysth, director of the Chelsea Physic Garden in 1770, maker of the first rock garden in the UK and one of the founders of the Royal Horticultural Society. The plant is native to China and was discovered there by Robert Fortune, a great eighteenth century plant-hunter.
Trivia: Forsythia is well known as a garden plant, but is also available as a cut flowering foliage. It can be one of the first flowers into bloom. Many people have forsythia plants in their garden but they take up a lot of space, and are pretty dull for the fifty weeks of the year they are not in flower. 
Stiff branches make for a pretty dull plant when not in flower the rest of the year.
NATURE IN JAPAN 