Prunus nipponica Matsum.

TSO logo

Sponsor this page

For information about how you could sponsor this page, see How You Can Help

Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Prunus nipponica' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/prunus/prunus-nipponica/). Accessed 2024-03-18.

Genus

Common Names

  • Japanese Alpine Cherry

Synonyms

  • P. iwagiensis Koehne
  • P. nikkoensis Koehne
  • P. ceraseidos Maxim ., in part

Glossary

calyx
(pl. calyces) Outer whorl of the perianth. Composed of several sepals.
apex
(pl. apices) Tip. apical At the apex.
calyx
(pl. calyces) Outer whorl of the perianth. Composed of several sepals.
entire
With an unbroken margin.
glabrous
Lacking hairs smooth. glabrescent Becoming hairless.
globose
globularSpherical or globe-shaped.
ovate
Egg-shaped; broadest towards the stem.

References

There are no active references in this article.

Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Prunus nipponica' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/prunus/prunus-nipponica/). Accessed 2024-03-18.

A deciduous bush 8 to 16 ft high, or occasionally a bushy-headed tree up to 20 ft high; young shoots glabrous, grey by autumn, ultimately chestnut brown. Leaves ovate, sometimes obovate, with a long, tail-like point, and a usually rounded base, sharply and doubly toothed; thinly hairy when young, chiefly on the veins, 112 to 312 in. long, 1 to 134 in. wide; stalk 12 to 34 in. long, glabrous. Flowers opening in May, solitary or in twos or threes, each on a glabrous or thinly hairy stalk 12 to 114 in. long; they are 34 to 1 in. wide, white or pale pink. Calyx-tube glabrous, funnel-shaped to bell-shaped; petals rounded and entire or notched at the end. Fruits black, globose, 13 in. wide.

Native of Japan; introduced to the Arnold Arboretum in 1915. There has been considerable confusion between this species, P. incisa, and P. apetala, all three distinguished by having black fruits and a leaf with a long tail-like apex and a conspicuous double toothing. It is distinct enough in other respects from P. apetala (q.v.), a cherry very downy or hairy in many of its parts. P. incisa is also more or less downy on the young shoots, leaf-stalk and calyx, the leaves are smaller, the branchlets never become bright brown as in P. nipponica, and the flowers are normally smaller.


P 'Kursar'

A hybrid raised by Collingwood Ingram from seed of P. nipponica var. kurilensis. It is one of the finest of the early cherries, bearing flowers of a remarkably vivid shade of pink in March, before the leaves; calyx and filaments of stamens dark red; pedicels hairy. It makes a vigorous fairly erect tree and colours orange in the autumn. A.M. 1952.The name ‘Kursar’ was given by Capt. Ingram in the belief that the pollen- parent was P. sargentii. He now thinks there must have been an accidental exchange of labels, and that the pollen really came from P. campanulata, which he had crossed with P. nipponica var. kurilensis at the same time. He points out that P. sargentii is unlikely to have yielded a hybrid with flowers of such a deep pink (A Garden of Memories, pp. 181–2).


var. kurilensis (Miyabe) Wils.

Synonyms
P. ceraseidos var. kurilensis Miyabe
P. kurilensis (Miyabe) Miyabe

This differs in having larger flowers and a downy leaf-stalk, calyx-tube, and flower-stalk. Native of N. Japan, the Kuriles, and Sakhalin; introduced to the Arnold Arboretum in 1905 and soon after to Britain. It is of dwarf habit and slow-growing in cultivation. The plant at Kew differs from the one grown as typical P. nipponica in its stiff, erect habit, larger calyx-tube, and more exserted stamens.