Prunus ssiori F. Schmidt

Although, according to Sargent, this bird cherry is a common tree in Hokkaido (Yezo), and in the mountain forests of the main island of Japan, it was not brought into cultivation until 1915. The same author (Forest Flora of Japan, p. 38) observes that it is always easily distinguished by its pale, nearly white bark. Young shoots glabrous. Leaves 3 to 6 in. long, oblong, often inclined to obovate, the apex drawn out into a long slender point, the base more or less heart-shaped, the margins closely set with fine almost bristle-like teeth, thin, membranous, glabrous above and the same beneath except for the tufts of brownish down in the vein-axils; stalk slender, 1 to 11⁄2 in. long, with one or two glands near the blade. Flowers small, white, produced in slender, glabrous cylindrical racemes 4 to 6 in. long, about 1 in. wide. The species has been found in Manchuria and Sakhalin. ‘The wood is very hard and close-grained, and is used by the Ainos for numerous domestic purposes’ (Sargent).