In July 2020, as part of efforts to support biodiversity, the entire Company worked as a team to grow nodding anemone, a Class II endangered plant species.[i]
Furukawa Automotive Systems Inc. cultivated the plants with the collaboration of two Furukawa Electric Group companies, Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd. (Yokohama Works) and Furukawa Research, Inc. After the seeds were separated from the seedlings, we started out with two planters at the Shiga head office of Furukawa Automotive Systems. Later we plan to gather seeds from our own rootstock, to increase the number of plants grown.
In preparation for the spring bloom, we are nurturing the plants carefully, to get them through the Shiga winter without incident.
About Nodding Anemone
Nodding anemone (Anemone cernua or Pulsatilla cernua, okinagusa in Japanese, also known in English as narrow-leaf pasque-flower) is a herbaceous perennial of the family Ranunculaceae (buttercups) and the genus Pulsatilla. In Japan, the habitat of this wildflower is distributed across sunny grasslands and forest edges in Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu. The name in Japanese, which means “old-man grass,” derives from overall white and downy appearance of the leaves and stalks, suggestive of an elderly person’s head.
Nodding anemone once grew abundantly in the wild but has declined drastically due to loss of natural habitat from devastation, development and crop cultivation. In the Ministry of the Environment’s Red List[ii], nodding anemone is designated a Class II endangered species. It is also designated an endangered species in the Designated Rare Wild Flora and Fauna Species of Shiga Prefecture.
In accordance with the Furukawa Electric Group Environmental Policy, Furukawa Automotive Systems strives to preserve biodiversity and coexist harmoniously with nature and regional communities.
[i] A list of wild organisms in danger of extinction
[ii] A list of endangered wildlife species