陽明山國家公園全球資訊網-英文網陽明山國家公園全球資訊網-英文網

Every year from April to August, the song of the grass cicada can be heard from the awn prairies of Mt. Datun, especially along the main peak trail. When mating, male cicadas emit a loud mating call to attract the attention of females. Grass cicadas are green and perch on green leaves to escape detection from predators.

Its Chinese name, the 'five-colored bird', results from the bird's five different colors: red, yellow, black, blue, and green. It is also sometimes called 'flowery monk' because its call resembles the sound of wooden fish that monks hit with mallets. The black-browed barbet builds nests on dead trees in broad-leaf forests, and its main staple is berries.

Among the numerous butterfly species, the chestnut tiger is the species that appears earliest during the butterfly-watching season. During the May 'plum rain' season, many chestnut tigers form quite a spectacle as they feed on orchid nectar along the trail from Erziping parking lot to Mt. Datun main peak.

Latin name: Selaginella remotifolia Spring The Krauss spikemoss is quite a unique species of fern. The tip of the stem produces strobili for the purposes of reproduction. It is a type of outward growing plant, found between the elevations of 800 and 1,100 meters in wet and warm forests. Large, flake-shaped lobes grow intermittently on the stem.

Latin name: Machilus thunbergii Sieb. & Zucc.The tree most representative of Yangmingshan National Park is red nanmu. In spring it is adorned with red, pig foot-like flower buds, which earned it the Chinese name of “pig foot nanmu”. It often mixes together with other broad-leaved trees to form large forests.

Latin name: Hydrangea angustipetala Hayata The narrow-petaled hydrangea belongs to the family Saxifragaceae. It ranges from shrubs to small trees with pairs of perpendicular leaves. The arched leaves are yellow-green with fuzzy hairs at the intersection of the ridges. The flowering season is from May to July. The white, flower petal-like growths are in actuality sepals specialized into bracts. The real flowers, small and yellow, are unremarkable and easily overlooked. The exaggerated bracts attract pollinators.