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Oze NP, Gunma / Fukushima
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At Ryugu in Naka-Tashiro, stream water vanishes beneath the marsh and reappears about 50 m away, across the boardwalk. The name means “Dragon Palace”: the first observer imagined the hole led there.
Oze-kohone, a water-lily relative, was first found in Oze; a specimen collected in a Naka-Tashiro bog in 1950 anchors its botanical name. It has a distinctive red center and, in Honshu, is also known from Mt. Gassan.
Some ponds in Naka-Tashiro curve like comma-shaped magatama jewels. Researchers think these smooth-edged pools began as bends in meandering streams that were later cut off; Oze-ga-hara has about 1,800 ponds in all.
Near Naka-Tashiro crossroads, bare ground covered 21% of the mapped area in 1970, after trampling damaged the marsh. Oze’s restoration work began in 1966, using transplanted vegetation blocks and sedge seeds; 50 years later, the bare ground had disappeared.
Scientists monitor an 800 m transect in Naka-Tashiro using 23 permanent vegetation plots. In 2013, their survey recorded yachiran, a small orchid then listed as Vulnerable on Japan’s Red List.
