This photo is of the Fera Fera forest at Kubota Garden in Seattle, Washington. It was taken on July 7, 2007. Kubota Garden is a public garden that is now owned by the City of Seattle and maintained by the Department of Parks & Recreation. It was originally created and maintained for many years by Fujitaro Kubota.

According to their brochure, the Fera Fera forest is "a tranquil refuge, originally a nursery planting of Threadleaf Cypress."

I was curious where they got the name Fera Fera Forest. Google and Yahoo! searches for 'fera fera' didn't result in anything relevant. Then, I tried a search on 'threadleaf cypress' and I think I was able to solve the mystery. The common name for that tree is 'Filifera'. In Japanese, there is no 'L' sound, so words with them are pronounced with 'R'. =)

In any case, the "fera fera" trees are gone now, replaced with a loosely winding path of trees that provide an intimate area of nice, cool shade.

Kubota Garden
9817 55th Avenue S.
Seattle, Washington 98118

For information about the garden and Fujitaro Kubota, please visit their website: www.kubota.org. The site includes a brief history.