Cherry | Definition, Trees, Fruits, Types, Cultivation, & Facts | Britannica

Flowering cherries

Blissful blooms
Blissful bloomsA flowering cherry tree welcomes spring with an explosion of delicate pink blossoms. (more)
Flowering cherries
Flowering cherriesCherry trees in bloom near Mount Fuji, Japan.(more)

In Asia, particularly Japan, cherry varieties have been selected for the beauty of their pink or white flowers, and most of them do not set fruit. Although members of the genus Prunus typically have flowers with five petals, many ornamental cherries have been developed to produce double blooms with numerous petals. Beautiful ornamental cherry trees are featured in many gardens and after about 1900 were widely disseminated throughout the moderate-temperature areas of North America and Europe. The Japanese flowering cherries around the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C., were presented by the mayor of Tokyo in 1912; the majority of those trees are Yoshino cherry (Prunus ×yedoenis). Other popular ornamental species include weeping cherry (P. subhirtella, variety pendula), autumn-flowering cherry (P. subhirtella, variety autumnalis), Kwanzan cherry (P. serrulata ‘Kwanzan’), Sargent cherry (P. sargentii), and Takesimensis cherry (P. takesimensis).

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