Bamboo hats (笠) come in many shapes and sizes, but I believe the reference is to something like this.

The water-channeling properties of the beech tree is called "stemflow."

Stemflow is the flow of intercepted water down the trunk or stem of a plant. Stemflow, along with throughfall, is responsible for the transferal of precipitation and nutrients from the canopy to the soil. In tropical rain forests, where this kind of flow can be substantial, erosion gullies can form at the base of the trunk. However, in more temperate climates stemflow levels are low and have little erosional power.

The Japanese chinquapin is Castanopsis cuspidata. The camphor tree is Cinnamomum camphora, "a large evergreen tree that grows 60 to 100 feet tall. The leaves have a glossy, waxy appearance and smell of camphor when crushed." The Chinese hackberry is Celtis sinensis.

The ranka is a made-up word, created from the kanji for egg/ovum (卵) and fruit (果).

Labels: 12 kingdoms, hisho, language, science, translations