White flowers on the retusa fringe tree blooms like snow

SEOUL, May 13 (Yonhap) -- Native to Korea, China, Taiwan, and Japan, the retusa fringe tree is called i-pap-namu in Korean, meaning "rice tree," since the white blossoms that cover the entire tree resemble a bowl of  cooked rice. Located at a quiet rural village in Jungsan-ri, Gochang County Jeollanam-do, this 250-year-old fringe tree is classified as S.Korea's Natural Monument No. 183, with a height of 10.5m and 2.7m in width. As the season is slowly changing from spring to summer, the white flowers lit up the earth. (Photos provided by Lee Young-deok, a reader of K-Odyssey)

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