[editied by wcutler: This thread started as "What cherry". This has been identified now as P. x subhirtella 'Atsumori'.] I'm hoping that someone will help with this identification. This individual on West 14th is unlike other cherries I've seen. It most closely matches the description of 'Oshidori', which is reputed to be a Prunus incisa hybrid. The leaves certainly have that look (very stout and coarsely serrated), but the flowers don't have the requisite (albeit occasional) extra carpels and the petals seem more "regular" and rounded. Note the bulbous calyx tube, and hairy calyx, pedicels and petioles. The youngest shoots are also sparsely pubescent. The flowers are no more than 3 cm in diameter. The tree looks to be about 30 years old and is about 5m tall. There is some evidence of brown rot and bacterial canker.
Re: what cherry? double pink mid-season, small Thank you, Ron. Until now, the name was completely unfamiliar to me. I believe it may be the correct one. I had originally discounted P. x subhirtella because this tree always blooms mid April, which is considerably later than other Higan cherries in Vancouver. None of my cherry references is particularly good with P. x subhirtella, except Jacobson, North American Landscape Trees, and that's a resource I've obviously been neglecting (where I found the description, which is spot-on). By the way, how did you do that? Do you know of any specimens near you? pictures?
Re: what cherry? double pink mid-season, small Remembered seeing a pretty double Higan cherry in Victoria when I went there years ago with Jacobson's notes of locations for interesting Prunus, but had long forgotten the name of it. Looked under P. x subhirtella in North American Landscape Trees to recover cultivar name. Description there seemed like it might be what was in your pictures. Curiously, it does not seem to be mentioned here: http://www.arthurleej.com/a-victoriarosetrees.html
Mailed a link to this thread to Jacobson for comment. Turns out the description of 'Atsumori' Douglas and I both mentioned using here is based on my own notes! Here is his reply, in part: the description in NALT* was almost verbatim from notes you supplied me, based on specimens you saw in Victoria on Vancouver Street, and Pengergast east of Heywood. Typical subhirtella has constricted calyx tubes, while incisa does not. This Vancouver clone has unconstricted calyces, and may be P. incisa 'Plena'. But the double subhirtella clones such as Fukubana have stouter calyx tubes *North American Landscape Trees
Well, we have a "not a ukon" thread. Should we have a "not an atsumori" one, or what should I do about the thread title?
The next step would be to see if the Vancouver tree and any surviving examples there may be in Victoria are the same. As I remember it when I looked at 'Atsumori' there in the early 90's the ones I saw were all comparatively small street trees, that could easily have died since then. Meanwhile, because the NALT description appears to fit the Vancouver tree it seems perfectly acceptable to keep calling it (and the thread) 'Atsumori'.
I just found one of these in Stanley Park, just to the north of the golf course entrance. I'm including blossom size closeups.
Ron, I have photos of trees on Pendergast here, if you'd like to see them ... http://www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/forums/showpost.php?p=192932&postcount=21
I missed doing a timely posting of this 'Atsumori' in Stanley Park, so I may as well add them here, since there are not a lot of photos of this. On the Victoria photos, I can't see the sepals, which to me are very distinctive. I notice that the pistils are often quite a bit longer than the stamens on the Victoria trees and on this one.
