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Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles
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'Prunus cerasifera' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
A deciduous, round-headed tree up to 30 ft in height; young bark glabrous. Leaves ovate, oval or obovate, 11⁄2 to 21⁄2 in. long, 1 to 11⁄4 in. wide, toothed, downy along the midrib and veins beneath. Flowers 3⁄4 to 1 in. across, pure white, produced usually singly, sometimes two or three together, at each bud of the previous year’s shoots, but often crowded on short spur-like twigs so as to form dense clusters. Fruits smooth, red, 1 to 11⁄4 in. in diameter, round, indented at the junction with the stalk. Bot. Mag., t. 5934.
The cherry plum is known only in cultivation, and certainly derives from the wild P. divaricata (see below). It is a well-known tree in gardens, and is sometimes used as a stock for grafting. As flowering trees it and P. divaricata are the most beautiful of the true plums, being almost covered with pure white blossom in March. The fruits are developed not infrequently at Kew, but never in great quantity. They are used for tarts, etc., like ordinary plums and are imported in small quantities from the Continent. P. cerasifera and the cultivars ‘Nigra’ and ‘Pissardii’ make good hedges.
† cv. ‘Purpusii’. – Although not in commerce in Britain (so far as can be ascertained), an example in the Adelaide Botanic Garden has twice been mentioned recently in The Garden (Journ. R.H.S.) (Vol. 103, p. 335; Vol. 104, p. 465). It has leaves which are bronze with yellow and pink variegation along the midrib, and white flowers. Raised from ‘Pissardii’ and put into commerce by Messrs Hesse of Weener, in 1908. Of like origin is ‘Hessei’, which is shrubby and has narrow, irregularly shaped leaves, dark brown at the centre but with a yellowish margin and a golden rim.
P. × blireana – In ‘Moseri’ the flowers are also paler than in the typical clone.
Flowers pale pink, about {3/4} in. wide. Collected in Persia by Nancy Lindsay in 1937 and given an Award of Merit when shown from Kew February 17, 1948.
Synonyms
pissardii blireana fl. pl . Lemoine
P. cerasifera var. blireana (André) Bean
Synonyms
P. cerasifera subsp. divaricata (Ledeb.) Schneid.
P. monticola K. Koch
In spring this tree, like the type, is laden with blossom, which is of a delicate rose. Its foliage, however, is its most distinctive feature; when it first expands it is of a tender ruby-red, changing later to claret colour, finally to a dull heavy purple. Its fruits, too, are purple. This variety was first noted in Persia by M. Pissard, gardener to the Shah, and by him was sent to France in 1880, whence it rapidly spread in cultivation, and is now a very common tree. A.G.M. 1928.A number of selections from ‘Pissardii’ have been named, of which the best known in Britain is ‘Nigra’, in which the flowers are of a slightly deeper pink and the purple of the leaves also deeper and more persistent. This is of American origin. The similar ‘Woodii’ was raised at Wood’s nursery, Maresfield, E. Sussex, but apparently put into commerce by Späth’s nurseries, Berlin, in 1910. Other named clones are in commerce.In country gardens ‘Pissardii’ and its allies are often sparse flowering owing to the depredations of bullfinches.