‘Ito-kukuri’. This sparsely branched, umbrella-shaped Sato-zakura (Japanese village cherry) is known from before 1681. It is similar to, if not indistinguishable from ‘Temari’. Whatever it is called, the tree produces 4 to 4.5 cm diameter, bowl-shaped, soft pink, double flowers of singular beauty in mid April. Its flowers are borne on short flowering spurs and are so crowded as to appear bundled together (‘Ito-kukuri’ means “bundled with thread”). Easily confused with ‘Yokihi’ and ‘Takasago’, which have similarly tight, rounded flower clusters, but those cultivars differ in a number of features, including having slightly smaller, fragrant flowers. Close inspection of the flowers of ‘Ito-kukuri’ reveals pink veins in the petals. Extremely rare in the Vancouver area.
