young tree sprouts; young tree buds
Refers to the fresh sprouts or buds appearing on trees in spring. A somewhat poetic or literary word, often used in seasonal contexts.
When spring comes, young tree sprouts burst forth all at once in the mountains.
萌え木の淡い緑が美しい季節です。
It's the season when the pale green of young tree buds is beautiful.
Standard kanji spelling with regular okurigana.
Irregular okurigana variant; less common but still encountered.
Compound of 萌え (moe, 'sprouting', from verb 萌える) + 木 (ki, 'tree'), with rendaku voicing to gi. The exact historical derivation is uncertain, but the word has been used in classical poetry to describe the fresh greenery of spring.