Natural Habitat of Formosa Rice Trees on Bijindo Island, Tongyeong

The Formosa rice tree is an evergreen shrub of the Araliaceae family that grows in coastal mountain valleys in South Gyeongsang Province, such as at Namhae and on Geojedo Island. Its Korean name, meaning "eight-fingered tree", comes from its leaves, which are divided into seven to nine lobes shaped like the palm of a hand; it is also known as palgakgeumban or palgeumban. In the southern regions it is widely planted as an ornamental tree. The Natural Habitat of Formosa Rice Trees on Bijindo Island, Tongyeong, lies on the island of Bijindo in Hansan-myeon, Tongyeong. The site once suffered serious damage from a typhoon, and the trees grow there alongside camellias, Machilus thunbergii, Cinnamomum japonicum, and Ardisia japonica. A sad story is told about the Formosa rice tree. Long ago in India there lived a princess named Basva. On her seventeenth birthday her mother gave her a beautiful pair of matching rings as a gift. One of the princess's maids, cleaning her room, grew curious about the rings and tried them on, one on each thumb. When the rings would not come off, the frightened maid hid them by putting other rings over them. Grieving over her lost rings, the princess prompted the king to have everyone in the palace investigated, and the maid, standing before the king, held out her eight other fingers while keeping her two thumbs hidden. At that moment thunder and lightning struck from the sky, and as the lightning fell the maid was transformed into a Formosa rice tree. This is the northernmost location where the Formosa rice tree grows, and it is recognised as having high academic value as the natural habitat of a cultivated plant and as a rare species. For this reason it has been designated and protected as a natural monument.

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Where it is

Region

Tongyeong, Gyeongnam

Designation

Natural Monument · 천연기념물