This tree is more upright than Shirofugen, and the blossoms are a little smaller and a lot puffier. The tree is very visible on a private apartment building property on Robson west of Gilford in Vancouver's West End. It's past peak on May 15, but there are a lot of flowers still looking very good. It fits Kuitert's description of Prunus 'Kiku-zakura' (not weeping, so not 'Kiku-shidare-zakura'), except that the undersides of the leaves don't seem very whitish green, the peduncles and pedicels are Shirofugen length (but no hairs, which is consistent), and I don't know what it means to say the "calyx is disk-shaped receptacle, with a depression or hole in the middle". Is that what's shown here? That's supposed to determine if it's 'Kiku-zakura' or not. There were around 100 petals on the flower I examined, and several of the blossoms have the second-story flower. What I first thought were phylloid pistils are sepals (or "leafy sepals") on the upper-story flower and there were accessory sepals on the main flowers.
Re: Kiku-zakura? Pinky-white chrysanthemum, upright, very late Here are a few more pics. The leaf underside looks whitish in the first photo, but the second photo is the top of one leaf and the underside of the top one, and they seem to be the same colour. Does the third photo show a "disk-shaped receptacle with a depression in the middle"? I know I've sunk a long way from showing pretty pictures.
Re: Kiku-zakura? Pinky-white chrysanthemum, upright, very late Despite what I said in a previous (private) note, I think your identification is probably correct. Leaf waxiness (whitish leaf back) is undoubtedly a variable characteristic and depends upon environmental conditions. For example, dry conditions often promote leaf waxiness. A disk-shaped receptacle is what the picture shows. The "hole" is another matter. (?) Nice tree.
I caught these in bud, March 26, 2010, which is amazing because they're supposed to be very late season. Well, they'll be open next week. I'd have liked to get a photo of the totally unopened buds, but they're almost all opened up now. It looks like they were very round. When they open, the sepals look to be about twice the length of the petals. And every blossom shows sepals (?) in the centre of what I'm taking to be second-story flowers. [edited 20100329 by wcutler: I see last year I said they were "accessory sepals on the main flowers"]
I'm a bit obsessed with these 'Kiku-zakura' flowers that are still in their bud stage when you can see what's going on. These first two pictures show what seems to be three levels of flowers. Don't these peduncles and pedicels seem very thick? The second photo was at attempt to show the sepals and the hairless pedicels, and the apparent absence of a calyx tube.
You mean the bracts or whatever they're called. They look like that on a lot of cherries. I haven't got as far as paying attention to them yet to notice differences.
Erin Younger, on my Tree Talk and Walk today, picked a flower from the 'Kiku-zakura', expecting to see extra sepals on the back, because she said 'Kidu-shidare-zakura' have them. And yes, there they were.
This posting is to get the flower size - 4cm in diameter. These flowers opened about 2 1/2 weeks ago, are past prime but the trees are still full of flowers.
I don't think I have really convinced @Douglas Justice that there are second-story flowers on these trees, so here are some photos that I think demonstrate that. The first photo shows the calyx with its sepals, and then some more sepals that do not belong to this calyx. The second photo shows a ring of sepals that are atop a bunch of petals and are not attached to the calyx. The third photo shows two phylloid pistils, what looks to me to be one non-phylloid pistil, some stamens, the few white petals I didn't tear away, and some sepals (which don't look like the phylloid pistils), all belonging to the newer flower, sitting atop the flower with the older stamens and petals. The last photo is just a different view of the one before. And here are two photos of the leaves, stipules, and nectaries.
