edenfalling: stylized black-and-white line art of a sunset over water (question marks)
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For the next two chapters of "An Ounce of Prevention," I need to know the word 'myrtle' in Japanese. (And yes, I just gave away a major plot point, but I doubt anyone's too surprised.) I found two potential translations online, but they're in kanji and I don't know anything about kanji. I don't even know which of the two translations refers to the correct kind of myrtle.

If someone could give me phonetic/romanji renderings of the two words/phrases below, I would be extrememly grateful!


百日紅 【さるすべり】 (n) crape myrtle


山桃 【やまもも; ヤマモモ】 (n) asian bog myrtle; wax myrtle; myrica rubra


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ETA: I just did some quick searches on Wikipedia, and it seems that the plant I've always mentally referred to as myrtle is actually 'creeping myrtle,' or a type of periwinkle. Go figure. So what I now wonder is if JKR was referring to the shrub-type myrtle (ie, the second myrtle above) or to the lavender-flowered ground cover plant that I always think of. That plant, by the way, would seem to be this:


細螺 【きさご; きしゃご】 (n) periwinkle


(The only other 'periwinkle' I was able to find is the Madagascar version of the plant, which is white and foreign and clearly not any type of myrtle.)

My new question is whether this third Japanese word is referring to a plant or to a color. And, of course, how to pronounce it!

Return of ETA: Scratch that, this periwinkle seems to be the shellfish, not the plant. *sigh*

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edenfalling: stylized black-and-white line art of a sunset over water (Default)
Elizabeth Culmer

January 2026

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