Prunus serrulata - Japanese Cherry - Cherry Blossom

General Information Common Name  Japanese Cherry Scientific Name  Prunus serrulata Sun Tolerance  Full Sun Height  8-12 m (26 - 40 ft) Spread  8-12 m (26-40 ft) Growth Rate  Fast Bloom Time  Spring Color  Green, Red Flower Color  Pink Type  Tree Native  Europe, USA, Asia

Classification Kingdom  Plantae – Plants Subkingdom  Tracheobionta – Vascular plants Superdivision Spermatophyta – Seed plants Division  Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants Class  Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons Subclass  Rosidae Order/  Rosales Family  Rosaceae – Rose family Genus  Prunus L. – cherry Species  P. serrulata

Prunus serrulata - Japanese Cherry

Prunus serrulata common name is Japanese Cherry also called Hill Cherry, or Oriental Cherry or East Asian Cherry. It is a species of cherry native to Easter Asia  as Japan, Korea and China.  It is used for its spring cherry blossom displays and festivals.

It is a small deciduous tree with a short single trunk, with a dense crown.  It grows 8–12 m (26–40 ft). The smooth bark is chestnut-brown, with prominent horizontal lenticels. The leaves are arranged alternately, simple, ovate-lanceolate. Every leaf is 5–13 cm long and 2.5–6.5 cm broad, with a short petiole and a serrate or doubly serrate margin. At the end of autumn, the green leaves turn yellow or red. 

The flower of the P. serrulata is the main attraction. When bloom they are looking so beautiful. It blooms pink flowers in spring. The flowers are produced in racemose clusters of two to five together at nodes on short spurs in spring at the same time as the new leaves appear; with five petals in the wild type tree. The people of Japan, Korea and China celebrate the Cherry Blossom Festival when they full blooms in Spring. The fruit is a globose black drupe 8–10 mm diameter. Prunus serrulata is widely grown as a flowering ornamental tree, both in its native countries and throughout the temperate regions of the world. In cultivation in Europe and North America, it is usually grafted on to Prunus avium roots; the cultivated forms rarely bear fruit. It is viewed as part of the Japanese custom of Hanami.

The National Cherry Blossom Festival is a spring celebration in Washington, D.C., commemorating the 1912 gift of Prunus serrulata Japanese cherry trees from Tokyo to the city of Washington. They are planted in the Tidal Basin park. P. serrulata is manly cultivates as a flowering tree. People plant it in their garden or in the Park as ornamental Tree. 

Japanese Cherry

Japanese Cherry Leaves

Leaves of Cherry Blossom

Japanese Cherry Flowers

Flowers of Cherry Blossom

Japanese Cherry Fruits

Fruits of Japanese Cherry

Japanese Cherry Bark

Japanese Cherry Bark

Japanese Cherry leaves in Fall

Cherry Blossom as Ornamental Plant

Japanese Cherry

Japanese Cherry in tub

Japanese Cherry as ornamental tree

Prunus simonii - Simon plum

General Information Common Name  Simon Plum Scientific Name  Prunus simonii Sun Tolerance  Full Sun Height  5 - 8.5 m (18 - 30 ft) Spread  4.5 -6 m (15 - 20 ft) Growth Rate  Fast Bloom Time  Early Summer Color  Green Flower Color  White Type  Tree Native  China

Classification Kingdom  Plantae – Plants Subkingdom  Tracheobionta – Vascular plants Superdivision Spermatophyta – Seed plants Division  Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants Class  Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons Subclass  Rosidae Order  Rosales Family  Rosaceae – Rose family Genus  Prunus L. – plum Species  P. simoni

Prunus simonii, common name is Apricot Plum also known as Simon Plum, is a tree in the genus Prunus. It has been important for breeding commercial plum cultivars from crosses with other species of the genus Prunus. It is widely and commercially cultivate in china. This species is cultivated for its edible fruit and has many cultivars.

 Prunus simonii is a small deciduous tree. The green, simple leaves are alternate. They are obviating, crenate and etiolate. It is growing to about 5 – 8.5 meters (18 - 30 ft) in height. It produces cluster of white five-satellite flowers in Spring. The flowers produce almost no pollen. 

The fruit varies in quality, can be bitter or pleasant to eat, and is flat in shape. Just like an apricot, the fruit flesh clings tightly to the pit. The taste is often bitter. Fruit production is not particularly bountiful. The fruit is dark red or "brick red". The branches are slender and the leaves oblong. In appearance, the fruit is flatter than most plums, looking "tomato-like". The fruit is especially aromatic, much more so than Prunus salicina, with a relatively high level of hexyl acetate, which gives apples their aroma. The drupe fruits ripe in summer. 

Prunus spinosa - Blackthorn - Sloe

General Information Common Name  Blackthorn, Sloe Scientific Name  Prunus spinosa Sun Tolerance  Full Sun Height  4.5-6 m (15 - 20 ft) Spread  4.5 -6 m (15 - 20 ft) Growth Rate  Fast Bloom Time  Early Summer Color  Green Flower Color  White Type  Tree Native  Europe, Western Asia, Northwest Africa

Classification Kingdom  Plantae – Plants Subkingdom  Tracheobionta – Vascular plants Superdivision Spermatophyta – Seed plants Division  Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants Class  Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons Subclass  Rosidae Order  Rosales Family  Rosaceae – Rose family Genus  Prunus L. – plum Species  P. spinosa

Prunus spinosa - Blackthorn - Sloe

Prunus spinosa general name is Blackthorn but commonly called Sloe. It is a dwarfish tree which grows abundantly in hedgerows where, because of its many suckers and vicious black thorns, it is unpopular with farmers or on waste ground often forming impenetrable dense thickets.

Its black, thorn-studded twigs carry small alternate winter buds that are oval, bluntly pointed and reddish to purplish-black in color. The small (about an inch long) oval leaves are tender green on opening, have pointed tips, shallowly toothed margins, and dull red stalks. The leaves later become longer and narrower and a much darker duller green.

The leaves are usually preceded (though sometimes followed) in April by clouds of small, star-shaped, white, bi-sexual blossoms. The small round fruit (sloe) ripens through green flesh is intensely bitter to the taste and the stone is brown. The fruits are the source of sloe jelly. They are often fermented to produce sloe wine and if pickled in spirit they provide sloe gin.

The bark is black and on old trees it becomes broken into small square plates. The sapwood is pale yellow and the heartwood dark brown and tough. Though the tree is too small for use as timber, knobbly walking sticks are made from it and the wood was used to make the traditional Irish shillelagh. 

Leaves of Prunus spinosa

Leaves of Blackthorn - Sloe

Flowers of Prunus spinosa

Flowers of  Blackthorn - Sloe

Prunus spinosa - Blackthorn - Sloe Leves

Thorn of Prunus spinosa

Thorn of Blackthorn - Sloe

Prunus spinosa  - Green Fruits

Fruits of Blackthorn - Sloe

Prunus spinosa - Fruits

Prunus spinosa - Seeds

Prunus spinosa -  Full blooms

Prunus spinosa - Blackthorn - Sloe

Prunus spinosa - Blackthorn - Sloe

Prunus padus - Bird Cherry

General Information Common Name  Bird Cherry Scientific Name  Prunus padus Sun Tolerance  Full Sun Height  6-9 m (20 - 30 ft) Spread  4.5 -6 m (15 - 20 ft) Growth Rate  Fast Bloom Time  Early Summer Color  Green Flower Color  White Type  Tree Native  Europe, USA

Classification Kingdom  Plantae – Plants Subkingdom  Tracheobionta – Vascular plants Superdivision Spermatophyta – Seed plants Division  Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants Class  Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons Subclass  Rosidae Order/  Rosales Family  Rosaceae – Rose family Genus  Prunus L. – cherry Species  P. padus

Prunus padus - Bird Cherry

Prunus padus common name is Bird Cherry. This is a small slender cherry tree, sometime only a bush is particularly at home along stream sides in the Scottish Highlands. But it is mainly native to northern Europe and northern Asia. The crown is rounded, The upper branches ascending steeply, the lower spreading and even dropping.

The winter buds are stout, shiny, sharply pointed, and often bent, their scales vary in color from yellow to dark brown. The young shoots turn olive-green and eventually dark brown. The 2-3 inch long leaves are elliptical with finely toothed margins and are dull green on top and pale green below.

Prunus padus - Bird Cherry

There are up to forty small, white, bi-sexual, self-fertile flowers, which open in May, in each drooping or spreading spike-like raceme. The fruit (a cherry) changes from green to black, is shiny, up to half an inch in diameter and harsh and bitter to the tested, it ripens in August, and is relished by birds.

The bark is dark brown, and remains smooth, but is not shiny. The bands of orange-colored lenticels are much shorter than those on Gean (P. avium). The bark peels, and like the sappy wood has an unpleasant smell of bitter almonds. The sapwood is white and the heartwood dark purplish-brown.

Bird Cherry seems to spread more by suckering than from seed, though seedlings are extremely hardy and easily raised. It has produced several varieties and distinct geographical forms but as found growing wild in Europe does not vary greatly.

Bird Cherry Full Blooms

Prunus padus - Bird Cherry : Young Plant

Leaf of Bird Cherry

Prunus padus - Bird Cherry : Leaves

Flowers of Bird Cherry

Prunus padus - Bird Cherry Flowers

Prunus padus Flowers

Fruits of  Bird Cherry

Prunus padus Fruits

 Bird Cherry Bark

Logs of  Bird Cherry

Prunus padus - Bird Cherry

Prunus padus - Bird Cherry