Category: Urban Essays

Cherry flowers, and then…

As everybody knows, the someiyoshino (Cerasus x yedoensis Matsumura.cv.Yedoensis), of which the blossoming day is officially announced every year, isn’t the only cherry flower here in Fukuoka.

My house is located relatively close to Minami Kôen (park) and Fukuoka City Zoo and Botanical Gardens. (That might not mean anything to people who don’t know Fukuoka city, though…) Around the view tower parking, several kinds of cherry trees are planted that bloom later than the someiyoshino. Going up the stairs to the parking lot, there are thickets of azaleas on both sides, and some gaps in the paving that were probably the result of the recent earthquake. There are many kinds of cherry trees on that side, too, but actually we’re aiming for one near the parking entrance side.

These are cherry trees called ‘ukon’ (Cerasus lannesiana Wils..cv.Grandifora): they have double-petalled flowers of pale yellow-green. It seemed we missed their peak time, and the flower changed colour to being pinkish; however, they were still beautiful.

Actually, we didn’t pay much attention much to the ukon this year. It may be because we had a happy daytime cherry viewing party under the full someiyoshino – so we became dull for any other things?

Last Sunday morning, a neighbour went out to see the ukon flowers: until then it had gone from our minds. ‘What? Ukon? She’s going to buy turmeric?’ In fact, I seriously said such a stupid thing to her. (‘Ukon’ and ‘turmeric’ are homonyms in Japanese. The flower gets its name from its turmeric-like colour.) After she came back, we heard from her that the flowers had past their peak, but the day was very nice, and we took a walk to the parking after some business we had to do in the afternoon.

It looks like the ward or city put up new explanation signs, so we could see some other cherry names. Those were:

• Fugenzô (Cerasus lannesiana Wils.cv.Alborosea)
Old representative breed. It was full or a little past its prime…

• Syôgetsu (Cerasus lannesiana Wils.cv.Superba)
Pale pink but the middle is white. It was about almost full. It reminded us of rice cakes, but at the same time we could feel ‘Oh, the flowering cherry is also a member of the rose family.’ (It is, too.)

• Gyoikô ( Cerasus lannesiana Wils.cv.Gioiko)
What a surprise! The flower has more light green than ukon. It was past its peak time, and had become pinkish.

• Amanokawa (Cerasus lannesiana Wils. cv. Erecta)
The flowers are white and the tree itself is long and slender. If it was in another location, I might have not noticed it from a distance.

Click the small images to see a bigger picture.

We decided to mark our calendar so as not to miss their peak time again!

If we misunderstood the names and pictures, please let us know.

–YS, 17 April 2005

20 April 2005