Sargent's Cherry
Prunus sargentii · Rosaceae · 산벚나무
How to spot it
Similar to the Korean mountain cherry, but the one-year-old twigs are stout and the new buds are slightly sticky.
Look
- Leaves
- Alternate elliptic leaves 8 to 12 cm long and 4 to 7 cm wide, with a pointed tip and a slightly heart-shaped base. Hairless and toothed, with a pair of red nectar glands on the upper part of the leaf stalk.
- Flowers
- From late April to mid-May, pale pink (occasionally white) flowers open with the leaves, 2 to 3 together in umbels. The petals are round and scentless, and the style and ovary are hairless.
- Fruit
- Round drupes about 1 cm across ripen blackish purple from late June to late August.
- Bark
- Dark purplish-brown bark that peels sideways, with lenticels that appear long and horizontal.
Where it grows
- In Korea
- Native (Korean Peninsula)
- Native to
- Russia, Japan, and the Korean Peninsula (mainly along the Baekdudaegan, from Hamgyeongbuk-do to Gangwon-teukbyeoljachi-do and Jeonbuk-teukbyeoljachi-do)
- Ecology
- Described as a sun-loving tree that grows well on flat, moist, fertile ground, with strong cold hardiness and air pollution resistance.