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Prunus speciosa
Oshima cherry is a deciduous ornamental flowering tree, usually 4 to 12 metres tall, known for its fragrant clusters of white spring blossoms. It is a parent of many sakura cultivars and is grown in sunny, moist but well-drained soil.
Prunus speciosa, the Oshima cherry (Japanese: オオシマザクラ, Hepburn: ōshimazakura), is a true cherry tree noted for its ornamental cherry blossoms. It is native to Izu Ōshima island and the Izu Peninsula on Honshū near Tokyo, Japan.
The Oshima cherry is widely cultivated as an ornamental tree. Because of its large, showy flowers it is planted in many gardens and parks. It prefers sun and moist but well draining soil.
There are many cultivars. It is also a hybrid parent of many of the sakura flowering cherry cultivars. Among these cultivars, those that originated from Oshima cherry are called Cerasus Sato-zakura Group, and many cultivars have a large number of petals, and the representative cultivar is Prunus lannesiana ‘Kanzan’ or ‘Sekiyama’. The reason for this is that Oshima cherry tend to mutate into double-flowered, grow fast, have many large flowers, and have a strong fragrance, so they have been favored for cherry blossom viewing because of their characteristics. When the population of the southern Kanto region increased during the medieval Kamakura period, Oshima cherry, which was originally from Izu Ōshima Island, was brought to Honshu and started to be cultivated there, and then brought to the capital, Kyoto.
Prunus adenopoda · Red stinkwood · Prunus aitchisonii · Alabama cherry · Prunus alaica · Allegheny plum · American plum · Prunus amplifolia · Almond · Desert peach · Chickasaw plum · Prunus annularis
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Prunus speciosa by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
Pet safety from the ASPCA toxic and non-toxic plant lists.
