Identification: Single white flowers, mid-season - 2628 W 5th in Kitsilano

Tree at 2628 West 5th Ave (which looks like the unidentified tree at 3449 West 7th Ave):

 

And that yellow tag says?

I don't do IDs on single white-flowered trees past peak bloom.

 

You didn't think it would be that easy, did you? Unfortunately the tag is not plant related. It said 2 1/2" caliper so I assume it's for some tool.

 

I think that's the diameter of the trunk when it came from the supplier*. You're sure there isn't a 6-character code? Something like PRYE(or YD)AK or PRYESY?
Anyway, you already told me you thought the young 'Akebono' trees looked like the tree in question, that I think looks like 'Somei-yoshino'. Now you're showing me a single-white past its prime. Flowers are starting to shrink, and it's hard to tell blossom size in a photo. There are some other trees in the running now, would need to know about hairs on the stems, leaf serration. If there are hairs, I would say 'Akebono', and I don't agree that the flowers look the same as on that other tree (Very tall tree, light pink single flowers, late mid-season).

* My understanding is that trees are priced by trunk diameter, (measured, yes, with a caliper tool), which is one reason that they are grafted onto a faster-growing rootstock, so that they will beef up more quickly.

 

There was nothing else on the label. Like I said, I have an untrained eye when it comes to cherry trees. The last time I visited 3449, the flowers on the tree had changed color and no longer looked like the ones on the other tree. I'll make a note to visit this new tree again and take more photos of its other characteristics for comparison. To me the flowers of these two trees appear to be the same in size and color.

 

'Somei-yoshino' is a parent of 'Akebono' and has a lot of the same characteristics. The descriptions in the Ornamental Cherries of Vancouver book are practically the same. The give-aways are staminodes (small extra petal from a stamen) on some 'Akebono' flowers, and slightly larger, more cup-shaped flowers. On 'Somei-yoshino', the petals seem a little smaller and a little stiffer, a little thinner at the ends yet the stars in the centres seem a little larger, and they are more likely to go white sooner. Until recently, 'Akebono' were likely to be grafted; not so for 'Somei-yoshino'. As the flowers age, they look similar, and windy days seem to knock out the staminodes.

 

April 1, 2019:

 

Well, the photos are good! Not that they help. Can you get a photo of the base of the tree?
About half the flowers look like 'Somei-yoshino', and the others look like 'Akebono'. I said earlier that I thought it didn't look like the other referenced tree, but I might take that back. I'm favouring 'Somei-yoshino' right now. Flowers flat rather than cup-shaped, large stars in the centres on some of the flowers, no staminodes visible. I'd ask you to measure them, but I have seen 'Somei-yoshino' flowers that were 'Akebono' size. Still, these are in their prime, so if they max out at 3.5cm, then that would indicate 'Somei-yoshino'.

 

The trunk at soil line?

 

Yes, to see if it looks grafted. Again, if it's not grafted, that won't necessarily indicate anything either way, but if it is grafted, then it should not be 'Somei-yoshino'. Except that I have seen at least one grafted one of those.

 

It does not appear to be grafted.

 

Maybe from before the time that 'Akebono' on their own roots started appearing in the trade?