The Fringe Tree of Cheongok-ri, Whose Blossoms Foretold the Year's Harvest

At a glance

Tree

Fringe Tree of Cheongok-ri, Gimhae

Age · era

Designated a Natural Monument in 1982

Story

Gimhae-si introduces the Natural Monument "Fringe Tree of Cheongok-ri, Gimhae" (designated 9 November 1982, Juchon-myeon) as a sacred tree (sinmok) that has long protected Cheongok-ri, and says a village rite (dongje) is held around May, when the fringe tree is in full bloom. It is known as a tree that foretells the year's farming: if the fringe tree blooms heavily that year there will be a good harvest, and if it blooms sparsely there will be a bad one. A story is handed down in the village that if the east branches bloom heavily the east plain will have a good harvest, and if the west branches bloom heavily the west plain will. The Korea Heritage Service records the tree's age as about 500 years (estimated) and its height as 13.0 m, and considers that because the village has many prehistoric remains such as fortresses, dolmens and shell middens, the tree has been preserved along with the relics. It also interprets that because the fringe tree grows well where there is plenty of water and blooms fully when rainfall is moderate, the legend arose from long observation of nature. The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture introduces, as one theory of the name's origin, that when the flowers bloom in profusion the rice crop does well and people get to eat rice, so the tree came to be called ipap (ibap, that is, cooked rice), and records that in Jeollanam-do it is called ipha-namu (the "beginning of summer tree") because it blooms around Ipha (the start of summer), and it is said that if the flowers bloom fully all at once when the rice seedbed is started it will be a good harvest, if they hardly bloom a bad one, and if they bloom listlessly a severe drought.