Prunus serrulata Kwanzan Cherry Loc. C6, C13 (?)
This is a CT Notable Tree
The Branford Town Green has 2 Kwanzan Cherry in its inventory
Did You Know? 'Kwanzan' is the most popular Japanese cherry tree cultivar for cherry blossom viewing in Europe and North America. Compared with 'Yoshino cherry', a representative Japanese cultivar, it is popular because it grows well even in cold regions, is small and easy to plant in the garden, and has large flowers and deep pink petals. In the city of Bonn, Germany, there is a row of cherry trees where 300 Kwanzan trees were planted in the late 1980s. In Western countries, 'Pink Perfection' and 'Royal Burgundy' originated in 'Kwanzan' have been created. If you visit the Tidal Basin in Washington, DC, there are over 400 Kwanzan cherry trees split between a large grove and some smaller groves on Hains Point/East Potomac Park.
Kwanzan Cherry is a small deciduous tree with a short single trunk, with a dense crown reaching a height of 7.9–11.9 m (26–39 ft). The smooth bark is chestnut-brown, with prominent horizontal lenticels. The leaves are arranged alternately, simple, ovate-lanceolate, 5–13 cm long and 2.5–6.5 cm broad, with a short petiole and a serrate or doubly serrate margin. The coppery-brown young foliage and vivid purplish-pink double flowers 5cm in width opening from crimson buds. At the end of autumn, the green leaves turn yellow, red or crimson.[2]The flowers are produced in clusters of two to five together at nodes on short spurs in spring at the same time as the new leaves appear; they are large double pink, and bloom in early Spring. Its fruit, the sakuranbo, has differences from the Prunus avium in that sakuranbo are smaller in size and more bitter in taste; the sakuranbo is a globose black drupe 8–10 mm in diameter. Owing to their bitter taste, the sakuranbo should not be eaten whole, raw; the seed inside should be removed and the fleshy part preserved.