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Towada-Hachimantai NP, Aomori
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Gudari-numa releases about 200,000 tonnes of spring water daily, quickly spreading into a roughly 20-m-wide, 600-m-long stream that forms the headwaters of the Komagome River.
Five planarian flatworm species share Gudari-numa—an assemblage Aomori's official tourism guide says is found nowhere else on Honshu. One, Kitashiro-kazumeuzumushi, is known only from Hokkaido and Aomori.
A 2014–19 study found more than 129 bottom-dwelling invertebrate species from 11 phyla, including groundwater-adapted animals beneath the streambed; several insect groups common in neighboring streams were absent.
In 2020, a botanist reported hybrid watercress (Nasturtium × sterile) at Gudari-numa—the first Tohoku record. It can be mistaken for common watercress when not in fruit, so earlier plants may have been overlooked.
Ōtakane-bara (オオタカネバラ), a subalpine plant usually found above 1,000 m, also grows below 600 m near Gudari-numa; Aomori City's guide points to the spring's cold-water microclimate as a likely reason.
In August and September, Baika-mo opens white flowers right at Gudari-numa's surface. Its name, 梅花藻, literally means “plum-blossom water plant”—a lovely name for a plant blooming in a flowing stream.
Aomori's spring survey notes that novelist and angler Masuji Ibuse visited Gudari-numa. He gave the place its own essay in Kawazuri (“River Fishing”), first published in 1952.
