Japan Tries to Save Giant Radish

Japan has been following the progress of an unlikely hero after it was ruthlessly attacked. Last summer in the town of Aioi, Japan, residents were impressed by a daikon radish that was sprouting up through an area of asphalt pavement. They named the little plant Dokonjo Daikon, or the radish with fighting spirit. When Dokonjo was found with its top sliced off in an apparent attack, one morning last November, Japanese news picked up the story. Public sympathy caused the assailant to return the severed head. Since that fateful day the townspeople of Aioi have kept the severed head alive in hopes of reviving the plant. Now biologists are proposing tissue culture to create new Dokonjos.

Links:

• Japan tries to save giant radish from the BBC News


• A vegetable atrocity the latest on Dokonjo (with a recent photo) from the weblog of
  Richard Lloyd Parry, Asia Editor for The Times


• Crying shame as streetwise giant radish is cut down in its prime from the Times Online


• Daikon Some images of daikon.

Posted by Eric La Fountaine at 3:34 PM on February 23, 2006

Want to talk about this weblog entry? As of August 22, 2006, all new entries and most older entries are cross-posted to the UBC Botanical Garden Discussion Forums for discussion (you might need to use the search function to find the thread you are looking for).

This is an effort to reduce the amount of time spent dealing with spam (the forums are very good at stopping spam, the weblog commenting system is not so good).

Older entries already containing comments remain open for discussion.