Prunus itosakura
Prunus itosakura is a wild species of cherry trees native to Japan, and is also the name given to the cultivars derived from this species. Itosakura (Itozakura, 糸桜) means thread cherry, and appeared in historical documents from the Heian period in Japan. The scientific name for the hybrid between this species and Prunus incisa is Prunus × subhirtella. Historically, the Japanese have produced many cultivars from this wild species, and they are also called weeping cherry, autumn cherry, or winter-flowering cherry, because of the characteristics of each cultivar.
| Prunus itosakura | |
|---|---|
| A 200 year-old Edo higan tree. (Kitamoto City, Japan) | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Rosids |
| Order: | Rosales |
| Family: | Rosaceae |
| Genus: | Prunus |
| Species: | P. itosakura |
| Binomial name | |
| Prunus itosakura Siebold | |
| Synonyms | |
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Since 2018, the United States Department of Agriculture has classified the species as Prunus itosakura not Prunus subhirtella. The name itosakura originally refers to the weeping cherry, a cultivar derived from Edo higan. However, weeping cherry trees were misunderstood as wild species in the past and were given scientific names before Edo higan. Itosakura, the scientific name for weeping cherry, has also been applied to the scientific name of Edo higan, the type species of this species, because the scientific name given earlier has priority.