New Species of Cherry Tree in Japan Named "Kumano-zakura"

Tokyo, March 14 (Jiji Press)—Japan's Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute and the Wakayama prefectural government's forestry test station have given a new species of a wild cherry tree the Japanese name kumano-zakura.

The cherry tree, growing in the southern part of the Kii Peninsula in western Japan, is the first new species of the genus Cerasus in the country in some 100 years, the two groups said Tuesday.

(Photo courtesy of the Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute.)

The petals of kumano-zakura are mainly a light shade of red, similar to those of somei-yoshino, and bloom earlier than those of the cultivated variety.

The leaves are egg-shaped and smaller than those of the yamazakura and kasumi-zakura wild cherry trees found in the region.

The two organizations classified the kumano-zakura as a new species from characteristics such as the short and hairless stem part at the root of the flower.

(Photo courtesy of the Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute.)

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]